


Show me how you do that trick

by Scritto



Series: The Next Generation [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Basically just a cute fic where Lily is in love with her rival Stella Malfoy, Childhood Rivals, Draco is a good dad, F/F, Harry Potter Next Generation, I didn't tag underage sex but there will be consensual underage sex between people of the same age, Lesbian Romance, Multi, Sharing a Room, Summer Love, everyone's trying their best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:55:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 48,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25107322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scritto/pseuds/Scritto
Summary: Lily Potter could deal with being Harry Potter’s kid. She could also deal with being the middle child and only girl. What she couldn’t deal with, was being stuck with Stella Granger-Malfoy. When the Potters and Malfoys descend on the Burrow for the summer holidays, Lily resents once again being stuck sharing a room with her nemesis, Stella. But one fateful summer evening, a lost Quidditch match and a stolen kiss make Lily wonder if Stella really is that bad after all.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Lily Luna Potter/ Original Female Character (OFC)
Series: The Next Generation [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1979533
Comments: 49
Kudos: 128





	1. The Thing

**Author's Note:**

> Hi to anyone who happens to stumble upon this fic. 
> 
> This story was born out of being bored during lockdown and stuck in my sister's flat in London with nothing else to do. I would like to thank all the amazing writers that I've been reading ever since I was a teenager and way too obsessed with Dramione. It's taken me about a decade, but I thought I'd finally contribute something rather than just being a leech on your amazing, wildly inventive brains. Although this is a next-gen fic, Dramione will always be my first love and I had a lot of fun imagining what their daughter would be like. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading about Lily and Stella as much as I did writing about them.

Show me, show me, show me how you do that trick  
The one that makes me scream she said  
The one that makes me laugh she said  
Threw her arms around my neck  
Show me how you do it and I'll promise you  
I'll promise that I'll run away with you, I'll run away with you

Spinning on that dizzy edge  
Kissed her face and kissed her head  
Dreamed of all the different ways, I had to make her glow  
Why are you so far away she said  
Why won't you ever know that I'm in love with you?  
That I'm in love with you?

**-Just Like Heaven by The Cure-**

Lily Potter believed her whole life had been determined by one thing. Sure, there were sub-things, Thing-adjacent things shall we say, that also influenced how she became the person she was today. Of course, being born with the surname Potter is a not so small part of how she had grown up. Having Harry Potter as your father was a blessing and more often than not, a rather annoying curse. As a child, it was strange to have random people on the street come up to her father and thank him for saving their lives, magic, the universe etc when she only saw him as the man who had just told her that she wasn’t allowed another ice-cream. This dissonance between who she saw her father as and how the world did, only grew as she got older. It became a gaping chasm by the time she had finished her first year at Hogwarts and she had been forced to hear about her father’s exploits on a nearly daily basis. The man they described was not her father. Her father tucked her in bed every night and made her pancakes on Sundays. To her, that was the real Harry Potter and not the war-hero that everyone reduced him to. Even at 16, Lily still chafed to hear people go on about the great Harry Potter when they had never actually spent five minutes with the man. Yes, there was no denying that growing up with Harry as her father and the whole history that went along with that, played an important part in shaping her entire existence. Still, it was merely a sub-category of the far larger, Thing.

Another not so small thing, was growing up within her family. Yes, it was related to the whole “Harry Potter’s your father thing”, but it deserved it’s own chapter in the story of the making of Lily Potter. She was Harry and Ginny’s second child, two years younger than her elder brother, James, and four years older than her youngest, Albus. She was the only girl and the middle child, a double punch of complicated. Within her extended family, there was no shortage of girls, but unfortunately all of her cousins were either much older or younger than her. Victoire, Fleur and Bill’s daughter, was the cousin that she was closest to, but Victoire’s upcoming marriage to Teddy Lupin meant that her cousin was growing up and moving farther into a world of adulthood that Lily had no way of catching up to. So, despite her family’s valiant efforts at procreating, Lily Potter was the only Potter/Weasley in her year, actually even in the year above and below her as well. Where James had gone to Hogwarts and dormed with four of his cousins, Lily entered the Gryffindor common room, completely alone.

This leads us to the actual Thing that is at the centre of Lily’s very existence. Even though she was a bit of a lone pebble on the beach within the Weasley/Potter clan, she was not so alone if one extended her family nexus to the Weasley/Potter/Granger clan. Or the Golden Coalition as her mum, Ginny, liked to joke when all the families came together. In fact, Lily had an exact counterpart to be found within the Granger branch of the family. For not two days before Lily’s own entry into the world, she was beaten to the punch by the arrival of a beautiful, angelic mini-version of Hermione Granger. The only difference between baby Stella and her mother, was that Stella’s eyes were a distinct grey, bordering on silver. Her curly hair and fierce intelligence may have come from her mother, but her eyes were all Malfoy. Yes, Stella Granger-Malfoy had from birth seemed to be blessed with only her parents’ best qualities. Even those who still quietly tutted at the bizarreness of Hermione having married former Death Eater Draco Malfoy, swooned at the sight of the perfect baby Stella and were forced to admit that the pair made beautiful children.

So, Stella had a two-day head start to make everyone fall in love with her, before Lily’s far less exciting arrival. Lily always felt that those two days had given Stella an unfair advantage in everything. Of course, this was completely absurd and everyone was besotted with both girls, but growing up compared to Stella Malfoy each and every moment of the day was not an easy task. Even though Stella and Lily were technically not blood-related and their birthdays were two days apart, for all intents and purposes, Hermione and Ginny raised their girls as though they were twins. They did everything together. Everything. Their mums even bought a double-stroller to transport them everywhere. Together. Stella was in every single one of Lily’s early memories. They had learnt to walk together, to swim together. Lily had broken her arm when Stella had dared her to climb up onto the roof of the Burrow. Every time she thought of something from her childhood, Stella’s silver eyes seemed to be sparkling with mischief in the background.

When the girls were sent to Hogwarts, wearing the crisp new uniforms that they had bought together on a joint shopping trip, it was the first time that they were not treated as a matched set. For when the Sorting Hat was placed on Stella’s head, infuriatingly just another thing that Stella M for Malfoy got to do before Lily P for Potter, her silver eyes flashed with joy as it proclaimed her house to be Slytherin. Stella flitted down off the stool and happily joined her new housemates. When it was finally Lily’s turn, she shot a glance at Stella and realised that she was now faced with an important choice for what felt like the first time in her whole young life. She could continue to follow Stella’s lead, or she could strike out on her own. When the Sorting Hat cried, “Gryffindor”, Lily smiled, her choice made.

As she walked towards the Gryffindor table, she glanced over at Stella to see that she was staring at her, an indecipherable expression on her face. As Lily sat down, she wondered if she had irrevocably changed something in her life forever. It was a scary thought, but also exciting. At eleven, her life suddenly seemed filled with endless possibilities. Lily quickly forgot her sudden worry as the feast in front of her materialised and she was lost in the delights of her new home.

***

Stella’s existence had always been at the centre of Lily’s story, but there were two distinct chapters. Before Hogwarts, Lily and Stella had been inseparable, because their parents had orchestrated their life that way. It was not that they shared some deep connection or friendship that resulted in them spending all their time together, but rather a question of proximity. So, when they were separated into different houses at Hogwarts, their relationship quickly morphed from something benign and uncomplicated, into a mutual obsession. After years of being treated as practically the same person, both girls seemed determined to express their individuality. And thus, one of the great rivalries in magical histories was born. For both girls had unconsciously made the decision that first night at their new school, that the only way to fully rid themselves of the attachments of their early years, was to soundly trounce their counterpart in every single way possible.

***

“Daaaaad,” Lily whined. “Why does she always have to stay in my room? I asked if I could have the attic so that I could be alone. She can just stay in my old room.”

Harry didn’t seem to really be listening to his only daughter as he carried in groceries from the car into their wing of the rebuilt house at the Burrow. After the war, Harry and Ron had teamed up to rebuild and greatly extend the Burrow, in order to make room for the rapidly expanding families. Even though everyone had their own homes, the Potters for example still lived in Grimmauld Place, the Burrow was conceived as the touchstone that everyone could always come back to whenever they needed it.

“Albus and Scorpius are staying in your old room,” Harry replied calmly.

“Ughhhhhh,” Lily groaned and stamped her foot against the doorjamb.

“Instead of whining you can help me with these groceries,” Harry said pointedly as he walked past Lily back to the car.

“She doesn’t want to share a room with me either. I can promise you that,” Lily continued, trying a different tactic.

“Lily, are you sure this isn’t just because she caught the Snitch before you…”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence!” Lily interrupted, stalking after her father into the kitchen. “The only reason she caught that Snitch and her stupid team won the final is because she started telling me she liked my new haircut to distract me.”

“Oh, the horror. Stella Malfoy dared to give you a compliment,” Harry mocked, chuckling.

“You never take into account my feelings about Stella. None of you do.” Lily flopped down in a chair at the kitchen table and crossed her arms. She was a rather good sulker and her father felt a pang of guilt. He sat down on the chair opposite her.

“Lily, I know you and Stella have a bit of a rivalry, but you two are family. I know you’re not joined by blood, but Hermione is my family. Your mum’s as well. And that makes Stella your family too. Can you just try to get along, please?”

When Harry talked like this, Lily could feel the weight of all the things he wasn’t saying, things he never talked about. When he called Hermione family, it wasn’t just because they were friends; it was because they had survived a war together. Everything that her father, Hermione and Ron had gone through to defeat Voldemort made her petty squabbles with Stella pale in comparison.

“Fine,” she whined, finally. “She can stay in my room.”

Harry breathed a sigh of relief.

“But she can’t play her shitty Muggle music out loud. My ears will start to bleed.”

“Language!” Harry yelled at her, but she was already halfway out the door.

***

Lily was lying on her bed staring up at the ceiling when she heard the Granger-Malfoy horde descend on the Burrow. Her little brother, Albus, yelled out to Scorpius and she could hear small feet bound up the stairs to what was now his, her former, room. The previous Christmas, Lily had finally convinced everyone to give her the attic room to stay in when they were at the Burrow for the holidays, instead of the downstairs room that she was always forced to share with Stella. When the Burrow was rebuilt, several different wings were designed to give some of the branches of the family the impression of personal space, but unfortunately there were simply too many of them and everyone still had to share rooms with others occasionally. The Potter part of the Burrow always seemed to be shared with the Granger-Malfoys when they chose to grace everyone with their presence. Which meant that Lily was always lumped together with her perpetual sidekick, Stella. Or was Lily the sidekick?

Either way, after months of wheedling, Lily had finally gotten her way with the attic and she thought she would at last be free of the annoying Malfoy, when her parents had decided that James also deserved his own space and they moved Albus into her old room. So, she was very much still stuck with Stella.

“God, it’s like climbing Mount Everest to get up here,” an annoyed voice groaned from the door. “Why did you willingly choose this room?”

“Why do you curse like a Muggle?” Lily snapped from the bed, still staring at the ceiling.

There was a loud series of bangs as Stella dropped her bags on the floor.

“Well, aren’t we cheerful on this beautiful summer’s day. Are you still mad that I did better than you in DADA?”

Lily bolted upright.

“I would have done better than you if Professor Hammond didn’t have a soft spot for your mother.”

Stella smirked.

Lily groaned internally.

There was Stella, in all her glory, standing in the doorway, looking down at Lily. She was wearing a flowing white dress, her long curly hair framing her face. Some of her curls were pulled back in small, intricate plaits. Even though her hair was wild, it was a controlled wild, as if every wisp and strand of hair had been placed just so in order to make her look like some sort of nymph that had just walked out of a forest glade. Her hair was lighter than her mother’s and bordered more on a sort of blonde than brown. She was tall and slim, like some sylvan model. It frustrated Lily to no end that Stella had ended up a couple of centimetres taller than her. All in all, everything about Stella was perfectly, annoyingly lovely, but as she stared defiantly at Lily, her eyes crinkling in a mocking smile, Lily once again had to concede that her most striking feature were her eyes. Merlin, Stella had pretty eyes. They were like silver coins that permanently shone even when there was no light in the room. It was bloody annoying.

“You just didn’t study enough, Potter. You can beat me next time.” Stella flipped her hair over her shoulder and looked around her.

“Where can I put my stuff?”

“I beat you at Transfiguration and Arithmancy,” she said instead of answering Stella’s question.

“Well done, Lily. Where can I put my stuff?”

Whenever Stella used Lily’s name instead of calling her Potter, she always said it as though she were speaking to a child. God, she was annoying. Fuck. She was making Lily swear like a Muggle and it had only been five minutes.

Lily jumped off the bed and opened the cupboard that was next to hers. Her clothes had only filled the one and she had been looking forward to filling the second, but she realised now that perhaps her parents had only decided to kit her room out with a second wardrobe for the exact purpose of it being used by Stella. She jabbed a finger at it.

“For Her Highness,” she mocked. “I’m going outside.”

Lily didn’t bother waiting for an answer as she left the room and ran down the stairs. Five minutes and Stella was already getting on every single one of her nerves.

***

That evening, the assorted Weasleys, Potters and Granger-Malfoys that were at the Burrow all gathered outside at the giant trestle table to have dinner. George, Charlie and Bill’s families hadn’t arrived yet, but Ron’s whole family was there, as were his parents, as well as Lily’s own and of course Stella’s. Lily watched Stella from across the table as she sat next to her parents. Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy were an obscenely attractive couple and their perfect little Stella completed their idyllic family picture. Scorpius was also adorable, but Lily liked him too much to include him when she was groaning about his family’s genetic superiority. She laughed, sometimes, at the irony of how lovely Draco’s family looked, when he had technically gone against everything his pureblood family had taught him in order to marry Hermione and have said family. Lucius had wanted to disown him after he told them about Hermione, but Narcissa had threatened to divorce him if he did and so he had begrudgingly learnt to live with the fact that his grandchildren were part-Muggle. There were still a lot of familial tensions running about, but overall, the Malfoys had seemed to survive the transition intact.

Lily took a sip of her Pumpkin Fizz so that she could have something to do instead of fixate on Stella Malfoy.

“Hey Lily,” her brother James called. “Want to come play Quidditch with us?”

“Hells yes,” she yelled back, standing up.

“Can I play as well?” Stella piped up.

“You’re wearing a dress,” James replied with a frown.

Stella rolled her eyes. “Just because I’m wearing a dress doesn’t mean I’ve lost the use of my limbs, James. I can just spell it so it stays down.”

She started walking towards the Quidditch pitch out back, but stopped when she saw that Lily was still standing at the table.

“Aren’t you coming, Potter? Or are you afraid that I’ll beat you again?”

Lily gritted her teeth. Fuck yes, she was coming. And she was going to crush Stella Malfoy.

***

She did not crush Stella Malfoy. No, decidedly not.

When they arrived at the pitch, James put Lily in a team with Ron’s son, Hugo, and Scorpius. The youngest Malfoy was a sweetheart, but he really stood no chance against his elder sister, who seemingly had no qualms about crushing her little brother. Lily’s own traitor of a brother jumped up and down and hugged Stella after she landed yet another goal for their team.

Lily threw down her broom in defeat and walked away from the pitch.

Fuck Stella Malfoy. She beat Lily at everything. She had beaten her into this world and she would continue beating her at absolutely everything until she was old and grey. Lily wanted to scream from the frustration of it all. When she saw a bucket lying behind the house, she kicked it as hard as she could. If only it was Stella’s face.

“Lily, come on,” Stella’s voice materialised behind her. “You cannot seriously be so mad about a stupid game.”

Lily spun on her. “It is not just a game, Stella!” she yelled, dragging out Stella’s name mockingly. “You have to beat me at everything!”

“You have to beat me at everything, too,” Stella screamed back, matching her volume. “Every time I see you, you have to tell me about how you did better than me in some or other class. Christ, last Christmas you brought it up every five minutes that I had spelt a word wrong in Scrabble.”

Some of Lily’s anger leaked out of her like the air from a small hole in a balloon.

“It was just funny that you got it wrong. You’re mother was the brightest witch of her age, after all.”

“Fuck you, Potter, why do you always feel the need to bring that up.” Stella closed the space between them and shoved Lily back into the wall. “You of all people should understand the pressure of having parents like ours and all you do is use it against me. Fuck!”

Lily didn’t know if she was losing her mind, but seeing Stella so angry, her hair wild around her face, her silver eyes flashing, was kind of hot. Before she had a chance to follow up this thought with a more coherent one, she grabbed the back of Stella’s head and brought their lips crashing together. At first Stella didn’t react, but after what seemed like an impossibly long second, she started kissing Lily back. Or trying to.

Lily and Stella kissed the way they fought; interrupting and undermining each other every step of the way. Lily pulled at Stella’s hair to pull her one way, but Stella trapped Lily’s bottom lip in her teeth to pull her the other way. It was frantic and full of friction, but fuck if Lily wasn’t forced to admit that it was the hottest thing she had ever experienced. Too soon for Lily’s liking, Stella pulled her head back and took giant gulps of air. Her hands stayed planted against the wall next to Lily’s head and with each breath, her body pressed against Lily’s, they were standing so close.

Lily grinned as she looked at Stella’s swollen mouth and blown-out pupils. She had done that. She had managed to make perfect Stella Malfoy unravel. And it was glorious.

Stella frowned, as if she didn’t understand the expression on Lily’s face. She stepped back and Lily felt disappointed. Stella lifted a hand to her lips and her frown only deepened. Oh, fuck.

“Stella,” Lily began, but Stella raised a hand to stop her.

“I’m going to go,” Stella said in a small voice. “My parents will wonder where I am.”

Lily opened and closed her mouth, but couldn’t think of what to say. She followed Stella with her eyes as she walked way. Lily put her face in her hands, her palms over her eyelids.

Oh, fuck.

***

The rest of the evening passed uneventfully. By the time Lily came back to the table, Stella seemed like herself again and was laughing, sitting between Ginny and Hermione. Lily was almost offended by how normal she looked, because her own heart was still hammering in her chest. Instead of sitting down by her mum, Lily opted for joining Albus and Scorpius as they passed a Quaffle between each other.

When the boys went inside to go to bed, Lily decided to follow them and went to take a shower. She tried not to think of Stella, but every now and then Stella’s tinkling laugh would float up and remind Lily of how painfully close she was.

Why the fuck had Lily kissed her? The thought to kiss her had never even crossed Lily’s mind, but after not even half a day, she had gone and pashed her. Lily put her forehead against the tiles on the shower wall, trying to clear her head. Unfortunately, all that she could think of were Stella’s eyes. The way Stella smiled when she played Quidditch. The way she looked in that white dress. How she looked in her sleep.

Fuuuuuuuck.

Lily was going to have to share a bed with Stella after she had kissed her. Fuck, fuck and fuck. Maybe Stella would ask to be moved. Maybe she would tell her parents that Lily was a freak who had attacked her and she didn’t feel safe anymore. Lily felt like sinking into the earth as she thought of Draco Malfoy knowing that she had kissed his daughter. It was going to be so embarrassing.

“But she kissed you back,” a traitorous voice in the back of her head whispered. Lily lifted her head. That was true. Lily had grabbed Stella’s head and brought their lips together, but it was Stella who had really initiated the making out part of the kiss and Lily would bet the next Quidditch Championship, that Stella had been the one to stick her tongue down Lily’s throat first. Okay, this could work. If Stella threatened to tell anyone, Lily could threaten her right back. Lily finished off her shower, feeling ready to face whatever Stella Malfoy decided to throw her way.

***

Lily sat on the edge of her bed, waiting for Stella to finally come upstairs. It was past 11 before she heard soft, careful treads climbing the stairs. Stella quietly opened and closed the door, standing by it for a few seconds. When she turned around, Lily realised that Stella was holding her wand in her hand. Lily jumped up from the bed, holding up her hands.

“Woah, woah, I think hexing me is a bit of an excessive reaction.”

Stella rolled her yes. “I’m not going to hex you. I was silencing the room.”

Lily blanched.

“Are you going to kill me?”

Stella smiled, darkly. She put down her wand on the dresser and walked slowly towards the bed. Lily seemed to lose the ability to breathe.

“I’m not going to kill you,” Stella said, softly. She lifted her arms and slowly cupped Lily’s face in her hands. “I’m going to kiss you.”

Oh fuck.

***

Lily lay on her side on the bed, her legs tangled between Stella’s and her fingers tangled in Stella’s curls. Fuck, Stella was a good kisser. Her hands were on Lily’s waist and every now and then she would push her fingers into Lily’s middle, pushing her closer as though their tongues down each other’s throat wasn’t close enough for her.

Now that they weren’t hopped up on the adrenaline of yelling at each other, their kissing had found an easy rhythm. The kisses still left Lily breathless, but they didn’t have the frantic edge that they’d had before. This gave her the time to notice all of the wonderful things that came with kissing Stella Malfoy.

Firstly, Stella Malfoy’s mane of hair was not just wondrous to look at, but it was also one of the softest things Lily had ever touched. She could spend hours running her fingers through Stella’s hair. It was an endless labyrinth that never seemed to end. Every time Lily adjusted her hand, there was more hair to discover. Fuck, had hair always been this attractive to her? And then there were Stella’s lips. They were so fucking soft, Lily actually wanted to just take them in her teeth and bite them. Kissing Stella was turning her into a fucking psycho. And then, just to make matters even worse, Stella’s body was lying completely flush next to hers, so every time Stella moved even a centimetre she rubbed against Lily’s-

Wait, what’s this?

Lily’s train of thought was interrupted when Stella pushed Lily onto her back, briefly breaking the contact between their lips so that she could lean over Lily. Stella’s silver eyes flashed towards Lily’s, as she lowered herself so that her chest was right on top of Lily’s. Stella’s long fingers ghosted down Lily’s side and with a devilish Malfoy grin, she stuck her hand under Lily’s oversized T-shirt. Oh, fuck. Lily was going to explode because Stella Malfoy had her hand up her top. Stella must have noticed Lily’s breath hitching, because her grin got even bigger as she slowly moved her hand and started drawing circles on Lily’s bare skin.

“Something wrong, Potter?” she asked innocently. They were first words either of them had spoken since Stella had started kissing Lily and promptly pushed her down onto the bed. Lily wasn’t sure how long ago that had been.

“Not sure. There seems to be someone trying to get into my clothes.”

Stella opened her eyes in mock surprise. “Who would do such a thing?” Stella was the face of innocence as her hand sneaked lower and the tips of her fingers went under Lily’s underwear.

“Like that?” she asked breathily.

“More like,” Lily started, before getting her revenge and flipping Stella onto her back. Stella was still wearing the flowy dress that she had been wearing all day and Lily used this against her to slide her fingers down the length of Stella’s long leg and up her skirt. Lily trailed her fingers up to the point where she met the soft cloth of Stella’s underwear. She sneaked her fingers just under the material, but didn’t push any further. “That,” she finished, finally. Stella’s silver eyes were staring up at her, a wonderfully soft expression in her eyes that Lily had never seen before.

“What?” Lily asked, suddenly self-conscious. Had she done it badly? Had Stella thought her touch clumsy as she’d moved her hand across Stella’s thigh? Was Stella secretly laughing at her?

“How did you know?” Stella murmured, still staring at Lily.

“Know what?”

Stella didn’t answer right away. Her eyebrows drew together slightly, thinking. Now Lily was really worried that she had done something wrong. She was intensely aware that her hand was under Stella’s dress and halfway into her knickers.

Finally, she answered, “That we needed to kiss each other.”

Lily laughed, relieved. She moved her hand up and down Stella’s thigh, not even noticing what she was doing, so relieved that Stella hadn’t said anything mean. “I don’t know. You were so angry that it made me want to kiss you.”

“Me being angry made you want to kiss me?” Stella asked incredulously.

“Yes. Usually I’m the one that’s angry and you’re annoyingly calm.”

“I get angry,” Stella countered, shifting up and leaning on her elbow. Lily’s hand slipped down Stella’s thigh, but she didn’t remove it.

“You do, but then all you do is sneer and say something mean. I start spluttering and kicking stuff, so I look like a crazy person and you look all cool. You always look so fucking cool.”

Lily hadn’t meant to say the last bit with so much venom, but it had just come out like that.

Stella’s eyes turned into slits and Lily remembered that despite their current position, she was still dealing with a snake and Stella could have a very nasty bite.

“You sound very annoyed with me for someone whose hand is halfway up my dress.”

Lily didn’t know what to say. Stella was looking at her in a way that made Lily’s hand burn as she touched Stella’s distractingly soft skin. With a mere look, Stella could completely unravel her, but looking at Stella’s swollen lips and bird’s nest of a hair, Lily realised that maybe she could have the same effect on the oh-so cool Stella Malfoy as well.

Leaning down slightly, she whispered, “Maybe I like it when you annoy me.” And she kissed Stella’s bare thigh. Lily smiled against Stella’s skin as she heard Stella gasp.

Sitting back up quickly, Lily smirked at Stella. “Calm down, Malfoy. It was just a kiss.”

Stella glared at her. “I’ll get you back for that, Potter.” Stella was about to jump up and attack Lily, but Lily stopped her with her hands.

“Stella?” she asked softly.

Stella immediately went limp, no longer on the offensive.

“Yeah?”

Lily took Stella’s hand in hers.

“Can we just go to sleep now? I feel like my heart’s going to explode in my chest if we keep going.”

Stella smiled. “Me too.” With their joined hands, Stella pulled Lily down onto the bed until they were lying next to each other on the pillow. Stella tucked a loose piece of hair behind Lily’s ear. “I really like kissing you, Lily Luna.” Lily smiled. “I really like kissing you too, Stella Rose.”

Still holding each other’s hands, they fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcome. You can find me on [tumblr](https://richardayoadeshair.tumblr.com/)


	2. So, we're still doing that?

The next morning, Lily was very rudely woken up by someone banging on her bedroom door. She was having such a lovely dream, breathing in the smell of Stella’s hair with her arm wrapped around her waist, their fingers still entwined, when a stead knocking forced her into consciousness. Stella groaned and turned around so that she faced Lily. “Tell your brother to shut up,” she mumbled, still half asleep.

“You silenced the room, remember.”

“Oh, fuck,” Stella scowled. She disentangled herself from Lily and the sheets, and walked towards the dresser. She picked up her wand, undid the spell and yanked open the door.

“What. Do. You. Want?” she asked in a deadly soft voice. James paled slightly in the doorway, his hand still poised mid-knock.

“It’s 11,” he answered, mostly unfazed by the angry girl with crazy hair in front of him. “My dad says if you guys still want pancakes you need to come now otherwise you’re only eating at lunch.”

“We’ll be down in ten,” Lily answered from the bed.

James nodded at his sister. He looked at Stella again. “Merlin, Malfoy. Do you not own a brush? Or pyjamas?” He looked down pointedly at the dress that Stella was still wearing. James shook his head disapprovingly as he walked back down the stairs.

Stella closed the door before bursting into laughter. Lily collapsed on the bed, struggling to contain her laughter.

“Fuck, if your brother only knew,” Stella managed through her giggles.

Still laughing, she walked over to the closet and pulled out a dress and some underwear. Lily watched her as she walked back to the bed and sat down in front of Lily. “I’m going to take a shower. Don’t you fucking dare go eat all the pancakes without me.”

Stella’s eyes were deadly serious and Lily could only laugh. “Aye, aye, Captain,” she replied with a sarcastic salute.

“Fuck you, Potter,” Stella said and kissed Lily soundly on the mouth.

She got up and breezed towards the door. “Remember, not a single fucking pancake.” And with that she was out the door.

Lily touched a finger to her lips. So, they were still doing that. That was… nice.

***

Breakfast was weird. Lily sat across from Stella at one end of the table as her dad stood by the stove and made them pancakes. Her dad was telling them their options for activities for the day as he cooked. They could go hiking with the boys or help Lily’s grandmother with the garden. The adults were going to just lounge around the house, but the girls could do whatever they wanted.

It was decidedly weird to hear her dad talk about these mundane things as Lily sat across from the girl that she had made out with not once, but twice, right under her dad’s nose. Stella seemed unfazed and was performing some long, overly complicated tea ceremony that included waiting for the water to reach the right temperature and tea strainers and all manner of random gadgets.

“I don’t really feel like a walk today, Uncle Harry,” she answered, cool as a cucumber. Lily had a slightly sadistic urge to lift her foot and put it in-between her thighs and see how cool Her Highness would be then, but her better impulses won out.

“Dad, can we go into the Muggle village?” she asked instead.

Stella shot her a confused look.

Harry didn’t turn around as he flipped a pancake.

“Why do you want to do that?” he asked. 

“Well, you’re always telling me that I need to be nicer to Stella and she’s been going on and on about some shitty Muggle shop that she likes and I thought I should be gracious enough and try to share her interests.”

“How magnanimous of you, Potter,” Stella said in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

Harry came over with a stack of pancakes and placed it between the girls on the table.

“You’re allowed to go if you stop swearing so much,” he told her.

Lily grabbed a pancake just as Stella reached for one. She grinned at her victory.

“You taught me to swear, Dad.”

Harry sighed. “Unfortunately, I suppose I did.”

He went to wash his hands in the sink as the girls started eating their breakfast. “Well, enjoy your breakfast. Stella, call your mum if you have any problems.”

Stella smiled angelically. “Of course, Uncle Harry. Thank you so much for breakfast, it’s lovely.”

When Harry was out the door, Lily imitated Stella and said, “Thank you, Uncle Harry. It’s lovely.”

“Oh, you’d love it if I talked to you like that,” Stella retorted, without missing a beat.

“I would not. You sound like an idiot.”

“Well you like this idiot.”

Lily nearly choked on her bite of pancake. “When did I say I liked you?”

“When you kissed me,” Stella challenged.

“Maybe I was trying to shut you up,” she said lamely.

Stella gave her a pitying look. “Yeah sure, buddy. That’s also why you’ve basically asked me on a date to the Muggle village.”

“I have not asked you on a date, I have merely asked my father if we could go there.”

“Oh yeah, to a place where we will be completely alone and no-one that knows us would see us. You’re about as subtle as a kick in the head, Lily Luna.”

Lily bristled at Stella’s tone. “Well you don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

“Oh, I want to,” Stella answered, piling another pancake onto her plate. “I know a lovely movie house where you can stick your tongue down my throat for hours and no-one will notice.”

Lily could not believe she could say something like that with a straight face, calmly taking a bite out of a pancake.

Fuck.

***

Lily scowled as she followed Stella down the street in the Muggle village. Stella was practically bouncing as she led Lily from shop to shop pointing out all the clothes she thought were cute. Lily just nodded, her hands stuffed in the pockets of her shorts. She was wearing a plain white T-shirt, slightly oversized, that she had stuffed in ripped jean shorts. Even though it was quite a hot day, she had grabbed her black Converse so that she wouldn’t have to waste effort finding her sandals.

Watching perfect little Stella Malfoy in her cute emerald green sundress, hair tied up adorably in a half-ponytail with a large black bow, was starting to make Lily feel greatly inadequate. Stella tended to have this effect on her. In the morning, Lily could get dressed in her favourite clothes and look in the mirror and think she looked amazing. But then she would see Stella wearing some perfectly effortless outfit as if she were just floating around some music festival and Lily would instantly feel jealous of Stella.

As if she could hear Lily’s thoughts, Stella turned her head and smiled at Lily. Merlin, she wished she had a smile like that. She wished her hair flowed like that in the wind. She definitely wished she had long, perfectly sculpted legs like… oh no.

Lily stopped in the middle of the pavement.

She wasn’t jealous of Stella. She didn’t want to dress like her or be like her. She just wanted to fuck her.

In a rush, it all dawned on Lily. Every moment that she obsessed about Stella, about Stella’s marks, about her looks, about what everybody thought about her; it was because Lily was obsessed with _her_.

Because she was, oh that is so fucking embarrassing, insanely attracted to her. All these years, Lily hadn’t been competing with Stella because she didn’t like her or found her annoying; it was because she wanted her attention. She was such a fucking idiot.

“Lily, Lily.”

She wasn’t sure how many times Stella called her name before she looked up. Stella was staring at her concernedly, her hand on Lily’s arm. “Lily, are you okay?”

“I just,” Lily started. How could she explain this giant revelation she had just had by ogling Stella’s legs on a random Muggle street. “I was obsessed with beating you because I liked you. I was attracted to you, but instead I thought it was because I didn’t like you.”

Stella hit her on the side of the head.

“What the fuck was that for?” Lily yelped in a shocked voice.

“I thought you’d figured that out yesterday and that’s why you kissed me, you idiot. That’s why I asked you how did you know we needed to just kiss each other.”

Lily’s mouth formed an “oh” as she processed Stella’s words. She thought back to Stella’s thoughtful gaze as Lily had her hand on her thigh.

“Oh, that’s what you meant,” she said, slowly, sounding exactly like the idiot Stella accused her of being.

“God, you are thick, Lily Potter. I will seriously have to reconsider if I’m going to let you make out with me in the movie theater later.” With a flip of her wonderfully smelling hair, Stella turned on her heel and continued walking down the street.

Oh shit. No, no, no. Lily ran up behind Stella and grabbed her hand. “You promised,” she whined.

“God, you’re so needy,” Stella complained, but her eyes were smiling. They were now walking down the street, hand in hand.

“You’re the one that came into my room to make out with me.”

“We’re sharing the room, I might remind you.”

Lily leaned over and whispered in Stella’s ear, “I know.” Her voice was dripping with innuendo.

Stella looked at her from the corner of her eye. “I thought you didn’t want to share a room with me.”

“I have had a change of heart these past 24 hours.”

“Oh, you have, have you?” Stella drawled, sarcastically. “Pray-tell what brought this on?”

Lily spotted an alley that they were just about to pass. She pulled on Stella’s arm and led her into it. She pushed Stella against the wall and kissed her. It wasn’t rushed or frantic, she just wanted to feel close enough to Stella that they were breathing the same air. She drew back her head. Stella’s eyes were slightly glazed.

“This,” Lily replied simply.

Stella smiled and drew Lily in for another kiss. “Race you to the theater,” she whispered against Lily’s lips before running away.

***

Dinner that night was the most torturous experience of Lily’s life. Logically, she knew she couldn’t complain. Her parents had been through so much during the war, so had her Uncle Ron and Hermione, but she couldn’t help but think that she was suffering worse than they ever had. They certainly had never had to sit across from the family dinner table, making polite conversation with their siblings and parents while the girl that they had felt up all afternoon was sitting right fucking next to them, making jokes and laughing with her little brother as she had her fucking hand on their bare, fucking thigh. Every once in a while, Stella would squeeze Lily’s thigh and she was convinced she was going to pass out. No, at that moment she thought she would rather single-handedly fight the Second Wizarding War than sit through the sheer torture of this dinner, knowing that she and Stella would share a bed again that night.

“Lily?” her mother called. Ginny frowned at her daughter.

“Yes, mum?” Her voice was slightly hoarse.

“You’ve barely eaten, darling. Are you alright?”

“She’s fine,” Stella answered for her. “She just had such fun in the Muggle world that she’s a bit distracted. Right, Lily?”

And then Stella had the audacity to squeeze Lily’s thigh.

“Stella’s right. It was a really informative day. Stella introduced me to all her favourite spots. You should have heard how she gasped when we were watching the movie.” Stella dug her fingernails into Lily’s thigh, but she continued unperturbed. “She’s such a romantic. Aren’t you, Stella?”

Stella glared at Lily, but smiled sweetly at Ginny. “I am a sucker for people realising their feelings for each other.”

Ginny smiled. “Well, I for one am very happy to see the two of you getting along so well. You girls are really becoming mature, young ladies.”

Ginny turned back to Harry and Hermione and soon the adults didn’t pay the girls any more attention. Except Draco Malfoy.

For the rest of the dinner, he carefully watched his daughter as she sat next to her childhood friend and rival. Sitting next to his wife, who used to be his enemy, he was uniquely positioned to know exactly how fine the line between love and hate could be.

***

Lily cast a silencing spell as soon as they were back inside that attic room.

“You cannot do that to me at dinner,” she started yelling, but stopped when she realised that Stella was getting undressed in front of the closet. “What are you doing?”

Stella looked at her as if she was an idiot. She was wearing nothing but her bra and panties. “What do you think I’m doing?” she asked, putting a hand on her hip. God, she had nice hips.

“You can’t just, I mean,” Lily spluttered.

“You mean I can’t get changed into my pyjamas. As lovely as last night was, Lily Luna, my bra was fucking uncomfortable.” At the mention of the bra, she started yanking it down and Lily had to turn and face the door before she fainted. “What’s the big deal?” Stella continued. “You’ve seen me naked before. I’ve changed in front of you a million times.”

“That was before we started… you know.”

“No, I don’t know,” Stella drawled. “Whatever could you be referring to?”

Lily shot her a glare, forgetting that she was trying not to look. Luckily, Stella was wearing a camisole and small shorts. Lily could still make out every part of her body under the thin clothes, but at least the important parts of Stella’s body were covered.

Lily turned around fully. “See,” Stella said, as though she were talking to a child. “You’re safe now. My naked boobs aren’t going to attack you.”

Lily could feel a sulk coming on. “It’s not funny.”

Stella’s expression softened. She sat down on the edge of the bed. “What’s wrong, Lily?”

Lily softened at the sound of her name, coming out of Stella’s mouth sincerely, without a trace of mocking. She sat down next to Stella.

“You can’t use my feelings for you to make fun of me. Like at dinner. You can’t just put your hand on my thigh just so that you can see me squirm in front of everyone.”

“That’s not why I had my hand on your thigh,” Stella said quietly. “At least not the whole time. When your mother talked to you, I admit, I couldn’t resist.”

Lily turned to look at Stella. She seemed to be rather serious, which made Lily feel a bit more comfortable.

“So why did you have your hand on my thigh?” Lily asked.

“Same reason you were freaking out because of my hand, you idiot,” Stella replied. She looked Lily straight in the eye. “I like you too and I wanted to touch you. I couldn’t exactly kiss you in front of our parents, but I’m left-handed anyway so my right hand was free and your legs were too enticing. I can’t help you wear such short shorts.”

Stella looked away, as close to embarrassed as Stella Malfoy got.

“You like my legs?” Lily asked incredulously.

“Yes, I do, don’t read too much into it.”

Lily laughed. What a strange world it turned out to be. All afternoon she was freaking out, because of how new these feelings of attraction to Stella were, when she had not even thought to wonder if it was the same for Stella. The mischievous side of Lily reared up in her mind and she leaned back to pick up the oversized T-shirt that was folded on her pillow. She could feel Stella’s eyes on her.

Lily stood up and yanked her T-shirt over her head.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Stella yelped, covering her eyes with her hands.

So, she did feel the same. Interesting.

Lily smiled and took off her bra, pulling her sleep T-shirt over her head. She yanked down her shorts and threw her clothes in the laundry hamper. Slowly, she lifted Stella’s hands off her eyes.

“I was merely changing into my pyjamas, don’t get your knickers in a twist.”

Stella’s eyes turned into slits. She yanked Lily down onto the bed and proceeded to kiss her senseless. Lily happily followed her lead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcome. You can find me on [tumblr](https://richardayoadeshair.tumblr.com/)


	3. Dancing only leads to crying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Sorry it's been a while since I've updated. I left London to move back to Paris since lockdown has eased, so it was a bit of a hectic last two weeks. 
> 
> Bit of a warning, this chapter becomes a bit angsty. There will be no homophobia in this story, but there will be some angst about coming out, if that's an issue for anyone. As always, please enjoy!

If somebody asked Lily how her summer holiday was going this year, she really wasn’t sure how she would answer. Interesting, could maybe work. But she wasn’t sure interesting quite covered how strange it was to be sharing a room with someone you had known your whole life, who all of a sudden became the person that you wanted to touch all day long and thought of constantly. Okay, maybe the thinking of constantly bit wasn’t new. But the touching thing definitely was.

Usually, the Burrow was a relaxing place for Lily. She came here every summer and could spend it playing Quidditch with her brothers and cousins, or making food with her mum and aunts. Sure, there were a couple of weeks when the Granger-Malfoys would come and she would have to tolerate the annoyingly perfect Princess Malfoy, but time would pass quickly and then she would go back to Malfoy Manor to live in her perfectly manicured world. Lily longed for those simple days now.

The two weeks that had passed since Stella had been at the Burrow were both the most wonderful and most torturous two weeks of Lily’s life. Each night was a wonderful dream where she explored Stella’s body and Stella explored hers. Everything was so new to both of them that even though they had done nothing more than kiss and touch increasingly private parts of the other’s body, each movement felt important and intense, as if they were discovering something precious about themselves through the other person. The nights were magical, but the days were hell.

Every morning, Lily would have to drag herself out of Stella’s warm embrace to get dressed and pretend to be normal in front of her family. She had to go walking in the woods with Stella, their little brothers running up ahead of them, itching to hold her hand, but having to keep them stuffed in her pockets. At mealtimes, she was faced with the excruciating choice of choosing to sit apart from Stella where she could stare at her the whole time, or next to her, which meant constantly smelling her perfume and occasionally feeling Stella’s hand sneak into hers or onto her thigh. Choices, choices, choices.

The most torturous moment of all was one night when her dad pulled out an old record player. He asked her mum to dance and soon all of the adults were joining in. It was a rare day when Stella was not wearing a dress, but had instead stolen Lily’s ripped shorts. She was wearing a peasant top that seemed just a bit too short for the way that Stella was currently swaying to the music. Each time she twisted her hips, Lily was forced to glimpse her perfect, flat stomach. The shorts were the worst though. After their day in the Muggle village, Stella had told Lily her shorts were too short, but Lily had brushed off the comment. Now, seeing Stella’s perfectly shaped rear-end gyrate and move to the music, Lily really understood her point. Stella noticed Lily openly ogling her and smiled wickedly.

“Come on, Potter. You need to loosen up and dance a bit,” she called to Lily.

“Come on, Lil’,” her father agreed. “You love this song.”

She was going to go to Azkaban for stabbing her father.

Thoroughly placed on the spot, with all the adults watching her expectantly, Lily was forced to walk over to Stella.

Mischief positively beaming out of her silver eyes, Stella took Lily’s hand and started swaying her hips.

“See, Potter. You just listen to the beat and move your body to the music.”

“I know how to dance, Malfoy,” Lily sneered, a bit too harshly.

Stella wasn’t put off, though. “Could’ve fooled me.”

God, she was annoying. Lily watched Stella’s body move for a few more seconds then she pulled her against her.

Lily smiled as she saw Stella’s eyes widen.

“I’ll lead and you follow. Okay, Malfoy?”

Stella glared at her.

“Fine. Let’s see if you really can dance.”

Lily couldn’t believe they were getting away with this. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her parents dancing close together, lost in each other. Hermione and Draco’s foreheads were touching and they clearly noticed nothing. Uncle Ron concentrated on not stepping on his wife’s feet and took no notice of what his niece was getting up to. Feeling brave, Lily rested her hand under Stella’s shirt, open flat on her lower back.

“Interesting technique, Potter,” Stella quipped, moving her hips against Lily’s just a bit too deliberately.

“I like to think so, Malfoy,”

They continued like that for the rest of the song. Their faces were only a few centimeters apart, their noses almost touching. Lily’s hand burned where it touched Stella’s lower back and every once in a while, Stella would squeeze her shoulder and Lily would feel as though she were disintegrating.

Painfully, Lily pulled away from Stella’s body as the last notes of the song faded out. She didn’t quite have the strength to walk away yet, but her father put a hand on her shoulder.

“Come, Lily. I’d like to dance with you next.”

Lily smiled, even though she really was considering patricide as a valid life choice. Accepting her father’s hand, she turned away from Stella and started dancing with her father.

“Good idea, Potter,” she heard Draco say behind her. “My darling Stella, would you do me the honours?”

“Of course, Daddy,” Stella answered in her sickly sweet voice.

When Harry twirled her, Lily caught Stella’s eyes as she danced with her father. Usually when Lily watched Stella interact with her father, she would think about how annoyingly perfect they were, how similar their eyes were and how clearly Draco adored his daughter. This time, though, she simply felt sad. Here she was, standing barely two metres away from a girl that she was probably a bit in love with, but unable to do anything about it. All she could do was stare at her as they both danced with two people that they loved, but weren’t quite sure how to be honest with. Her father hadn’t realised he was pulling her away from anyone other than a girl she had to grudgingly spend time with. In that moment, she realised she resented her father. He had taught her how to walk, how to fly, but he had never taught her what to do if she fell in love with a girl.

***

“What’s wrong?” Stella asked quietly when they were lying in bed that night. Lily lay on her side, facing away from Stella. She had gone up to bed before Stella and was already under the covers when Stella slipped in behind her. “You’ve been weird ever since we danced. You don’t have to worry, they didn’t suspect anything. I think they’re so shocked when we aren’t at each other’s throats they just avert their eyes in case they break the spell.”

Lily said nothing.

Stella shifted closer behind her. “Come on, Lily, What’s going on?”

Lily wanted to say something, but couldn’t formulate the right words.

“Fine then, be that way. I’ll never fucking dance with you again, alright? And I’ll have you know, I didn’t even do anything. You were the one that wanted to dance close together and put your hand up my blouse, so you don’t get to be all sanctimonious right now.”

Lily felt a tear leak out of her eye. She didn’t know how to do this. With great effort, she turned around to face Stella, who was scowling at the ceiling.

Lily stared at Stella and tried to find the words, but found they choked in her throat. This made her feel like an idiot and the tears started flowing faster.

Stella finally realised something was wrong and turned her head to see Lily holding back sobs.

“Oh, fuck. No, don’t cry. Come on, I wasn’t even that mean. I’ve said way meaner stuff to you.”

Stella looked terrified and pulled Lily closer, running her hands up and down her back soothingly. “I’m so sorry, Lily. I’m such an idiot,” she continued.

“It’s not you,” Lily finally managed.

Stella frowned. “What’s wrong then?”

Lily took a deep, shaky breath. “They didn’t teach us how to do this.”

“To do what?” Stella asked, visibly confused.

“To like each other.”

Stella’s frown grew deeper, but she waited for Lily to go on.

“They let us share a room and a bed and dance in front of them, without even noticing, because they don’t think it’s possible for us to like each other. They think, oh, they grew up together, they’re like family. And worst of all, they think, they’re both girls.”

Lily’s voice cracks slightly at the last part.

“Oh,” Stella replies. “You’re upset because they don’t realise we’re, umm.” Stella closes her eyes. “Gay. I mean, I think I am, I can’t speak for you.”

“Exactly,” Lily answers, rolling onto her back in frustration. “They never taught us what to do if we fall in love with a girl. Do you know where I’ve seen gay people? In those Muggle films you make me watch. I don’t know one single gay witch or wizard. I’ve never even heard anyone in my family mention it. So, how the fuck am I supposed to deal with this when they have done nothing to prepare me.”

“Are you upset that you’re gay?” Stella asked in a small voice.

Lily turns back to see that Stella is looking at her, with real fear in her eyes. “Of course not,” she reassures her, drawing close to her. “I’m just… I’m sad that they don’t see us. That one day we’re going to be this bomb that gets dropped on them and they’re going to be so shocked. And it’s just because we are who we are.” She stifles a sob again. “They didn’t prepare us for this.”

“Shhhh,” Stella soothes as she pulls Lily into her embrace. “It’s okay. You can do this, Lily. We can do this. Shhhhh.”

Lily cried in Stella’s arms until sleep mercifully stole away her thoughts.

***

Lily woke up to find Stella staring at her. As much as Stella’s sneers and smirks could annoy Lily, the naked vulnerability with which she was looking at her nearly broke her heart. Fuck, she had put that look in Stella’s eyes. All because she had freaked out about being gay in a society where it barely existed.

“Stella, please don’t look at me like that,” she begged.

“How am I looking at you?” Stella asked.

“Like I’m your puppy and I’ve been kicked.”

Stella lifted her head off the pillows. “I’m not looking at you like that. I’m just worried about you. You fucking cried your eyes out last night.”

“Look, it’s okay. I’m okay. I just needed to get it out of my system. I feel better.”

Stella looked down at her, unconvinced.

“Lily, it’s not, it’s…” Stella trailed off.

“Look at that. Stella Malfoy, lost for words. That’s a first.”

“Fuck you, Lily. Stop deflecting.” Stella dropped her head down onto the pillow and glared at the ceiling.

Lily felt chastened. She sometimes forgot how well Stella knew her. It would often shock her when Stella would casually drop a biting personal comment during class or tease her during a Quidditch match when they were on opposite sides. It shocked her each time to be reminded how much history they shared. How Stella’s intimate knowledge of Lily’s life gave her the power to make her ridiculously happy or wound her irrevocably. Stella knew her and Lily could not run away from that.

“What I’m trying to say,” Stella continued after a while, “is that it’s not easy. You’re not going to cry one night and then everything’s perfect the next day. We’re not like everyone else and we’re never going to be, but we’ll get through it. Yes, our parents are ignorant, because they were raised by ignorant people and our school is ignorant and even the Muggle world is ignorant. But we will get through it. It just takes work. My parents have been married for twenty fucking years and they still have to work at it. Do you know how many times people want nothing to do with mum, because she married a former Death Eater. People treat me well, but that’s because I look like her. Scorpius gets treated like the plague by everyone except your little brother. But my parents work through it. They deal with it. And Scorpius and I deal with it. And your parents deal with the fact that the great Hermione Granger fell in love with a fucking former Death Eater.”

Lily laughed quietly at Stella’s tirade. Stella leaned over and faced Lily. She put her hand on Lily’s cheek. “What I’m saying is it’s not going to be easy, but you will get through it. And I’ll get through it. And if you want to, we’ll do it together.”

Lily placed her hand on Stella’s cheek, Stella lifting her eyes back to Lily’s. “Of course we’ll do it together, you idiot.”

“That’s my line, you idiot,” Stella growled, playfully.

Lily kissed Stella. This kiss felt slow and important, as though they were sealing a promise that went beyond words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcome. You can find me on [tumblr](https://richardayoadeshair.tumblr.com/).


	4. All good things come to an end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I have been avoiding all my adult duties in favour of distracting myself with fictional characters, so here's the next chapter. This one has only a sprinkling of angst, but a large dollop of smut. Enjoy!

They spent the next few hours just lying in bed, talking and occasionally kissing. Lily was getting more and more used to their new relationship and could honestly admit that she enjoyed spending time just doing nothing with Stella. No one came to bother them and she was grateful for the reprieve. She enjoyed the little bubble they had in her room, where they could just figure out what they meant to each other without the rest of the world intruding.

After 11, Stella gently lifted Lily’s head off her stomach and said, “I think we should get dressed and go downstairs. We can’t hide up here forever.”

Lily sighed. “I guess you’re right. They’re probably wondering if we’ve murdered each other.”

Stella laughed. “Probably.”

Once downstairs, no-one took much notice of their having woken up. They went into the kitchen and grabbed some cereal, sitting by the kitchen table.

“Morning, girls,” Draco greeted them as he walked in through the door that led in from the gardens. “You two sleep well?”

“Yes, Daddy,” Stella smiled. “And you?”

“Not too bad, although I am convinced I can hear Ron snoring from the other side of the house,” Draco joked, as he poured himself a glass of water. “I’ll sleep better once we’re home again and I don’t have to relax all day. Nothing ruins my sleep more than relaxing all day.”

“My word, Draco, you really are the cheeriest person alive aren’t you?” Hermione quipped as she entered the kitchen. “Calm down, you will see your precious house in two days. Morning, girls. I hope he isn’t spoiling your morning with his hatred of holidays.”

“Morning, Mum. I like your dress,” Stella said to Hermione, completely normally.

Lily on the other hand, felt her throat constricting. The cereal in her mouth tasted like nothing and she struggled to swallow it down. Two days. She couldn’t believe it. How had she forgotten that Stella always stayed only two or three weeks, because her parents had to work and Draco didn’t really like the Burrow. It wasn’t that they didn’t come back throughout the summer, for birthdays and Sunday roasts and Quidditch matches, but they only ever stayed here for the first couple of weeks each summer. Stella was leaving. Whatever strange peace they had found would be broken and Lily would have to deal with all of these revelations on her own.

“Lily, are you okay?” Draco asked, leaning down next to her. Stella and Hermione stopped their conversation and looked at her following Draco’s question.

“I’m fine,” she said, quickly, the three Malfoys watching her intently making her feel uncomfortable. “I was just daydreaming about having my room back.” The joke sounded false even to her ears, but no-one commented on it.

“You should eat some fruit with your cereal, Lily,” Draco said in a gruff, but friendly tone. “That stuff doesn’t have enough nutrients.” He clapped his hands together. “Well, I’m going to go help Mrs. Weasley in the garden again. She is going to murder her roses one of these days if I don’t keep an eye on her.” Draco winked at the girls, kissed his wife on the cheek and walked out through the kitchen door. Hermione left to go looking for Scorpius.

After they were gone, Lily and Stella sat in silence for a while at the table. Stella was the one who finally spoke. “You know you usually you count the seconds until we leave. Clearly physical affection turns your mental faculties to mush.”

Lily scowled. “You’re being deliberately mean.”

Stella sighed, “I suppose I am.” She was quiet for a few moments. “I don’t like this new dynamic between us.”

“What do you mean?”

“The one where I make you sad. I prefer it when you’re angry at me and shout at me.”

“Why do you think you make me sad?”

Stella shrugged her shoulders. “How can I not think that? My dad mentions how we’re going to be leaving and you look as if you’ve just been told you have terminal cancer.”

“I really was daydreaming about how I’ll have the room to myself again,” she tried to joke.

Stella gave her a scathing look.

“Fine, I was sad about you leaving, okay.”

“I’m sad, too,” Stella said. She really was trying to be more vulnerable, Lily would give her that.

“So, what do we do about the sad?” Lily asked.

Stella shrugged again. This shrugging nonsense was very un-Stella-like behaviour.

“Pretend to be normal. I do something that annoys you and then you huff and puff and then I smirk and then you tell me I’m a spoilt Slytherin princess, then I tell you to get over yourself.”

Lily started laughing and Stella smiled. “I can go on if you like?”

“Oh, please do,” Lily teased.

“At some point you’ll go, ‘ughhhhhhh’,” Stella imitated Lily’s groan, arm actions included. “And then I’ll laugh, because you’re actually quite cute when you do that, but you’ll think I’m just being condescending and then you’ll walk away.”

“I am far more articulate than that when we fight,” Lily protested. Stella raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow.

“Fine, I’m not, but you are an endlessly frustrating person to argue with, I assure you. Nothing flusters you. You’re unflappable, annoyingly so.”

“I’m flappable. You flap me regularly.”

“I’ll flap you in bed tonight,” Lily threatened.

“How do you flap someone?” Albus asked, walking into the kitchen. Fuck, they really shouldn’t be using double-entendres in the kitchen.

“It’s just a game girls play,” Stella replied, completely unfazed. “What are you boys up to today?”

“We’re going to try and build a tree house.”

“Mind if we join you?” Stella asked.

Albus shrugged a shoulder. “Sure. So long as you don’t tell your dad. He didn’t seem thrilled by the prospect of a tree house.”

Stella nodded, knowingly. “That sounds like him.”

Albus headed towards the kitchen door and Stella stood to follow him.

“Do you think anyone’s noticed we use the boys as a buffer, yet?” Lily asked Stella quietly as they followed Albus’ dark head.

“No, they probably think you’ll be less inclined to eat me if your little brother is present.”

Lily stopped at her words, her mind going to a very filthy place.

Stella turned around curiously, when she realised Lily had stopped. She saw Lily’s expression and huffed indignantly. “I didn’t mean it like that. Get your mind out of the gutter, you fucking pervert.”

Lily grinned. “You’re thinking about it now, though, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m not,” Stella said sternly, staring straight ahead of her as she walked. “I’m unflappable.”

 _We’ll see_ , Lily thought.

***

All day, Lily thought about what she wanted to do with Stella before she went back to Malfoy Manor and they would see each other only on the occasional weekend. It was a daunting thought, because they had only been in their weird little quasi-relationship for two weeks, so the list of things she still wanted to do with Stella was pretty much everything. Finally, she decided on something that frightened her, but also excited her more than she was willing to admit.

As they carried the dishes to the kitchen after dinner, Lily whispered to Stella that she must tell her parents that she was tired and come up to bed early. Stella frowned at her, but nodded.

After depositing the dishes, Lily told her parents she was going up to her bed to read. She bade everyone goodnight and rushed up to her room. Once there, she quickly changed into her pyjamas. She ran a brush through her hair just in case. Looking at her hair, Lily remembered the Quidditch Championship final, when Stella had drawn up next to her and looked at her curiously. Lily had just cut her dark hair into a short bob, fringe included. She had dyed the longer front tips red, in honour of the final. When Lily finally snapped, “What?”, Stella merely replied that Lily’s new haircut suited her. Running her hands through her short hair now, Lily wondered if Stella had been commenting on just her hair.

Still lost in thought, she didn’t notice that Stella had come up the stairs until she put her arms around Lily’s waist from behind. “So, why have I been summoned up to bed at this ungodly early hour?” Her breath tickled the hair by Lily’s ear. “You know we supposedly slept until 11 this morning, so my parents are probably going to start thinking I’m a narcoleptic.”

“That’s not how narcolepsy works,” Lily smiled as she turned around to look at Stella.

Stella kept her hands on Lily’s waist and Lily put her arms around Stella’s neck.

“So, you going to tell me or do I have to drag it out of you?” Stella asked, bumping Lily with her hips.

Lily bit her bottom lip. “I was wondering if we could try something before you go?”

“Try what?” Stella asked, distrusting.

Lily took one of Stella’s hands from her waist and led her to the bed.

“Lie down,” she told Stella.

Stella looked at her warily. “Why?”

“Trust me. If you want me to stop, just say stop. Okay?”

“Okay,” Stella said softly. She lay down on her back, but kept her eyes on Lily.

Lily took a deep breath.

Stella was wearing a pale pink sundress that went just up to her knees when she was standing, but was now hitched up to her mid-thigh. Slowly, Lily sat down next to Stella and placed her hand on Stella’s knee. Very gently, Lily traced her fingers up Stella’s inner thigh. A muscle jumped in Stella’s leg, but besides that, she lay motionless on the bed. Lily continued her advancement and stopped only when she reached Stella’s underwear. Slowly, to give Stella plenty of time to stop her, she looped her fingers under the soft material and pulled down with both her hands. Stella seemed to be holding her breath and a small part of Lily enjoyed having her in her thrall. She dropped the underwear onto the floor and edged herself back onto the bed next to Stella. She turned her face to Stella’s and looked into her silver eyes. Stella was watching her intently, but made no move to stop her. Lowering her hand, she slid her hand beneath Stella’s dress until she found her target.

Lily had never done this to anyone else before, but she was operating on the hope that Stella liked the same things she did. Ever so gently, Lily started moving her hand experimentally. Stella squirmed under touch, but her eyes stayed locked onto Lily’s. Feeling braver, Lily started rubbing her fingers against where she hoped Stella’s most sensitive part was located. When Stella closed her eyes and bit her lower lip, Lily was happy to see her suspicion confirmed. For a few seconds, Lily teased this spot, moving her fingers up and down. A small moan escaped Stella and she leaned a bit closer towards Lily, inadvertently causing Lily’s hand to move closer inside her. Lily took that as invitation and put two of her fingers inside Stella. Lily shifted onto her elbow to get a better angle and started dipping her finger in and out of Stella’s wetness. She did not penetrate deeply, but just allowed her fingers to slide in and out across her slick lips.

Fuck, Stella was wet. And soft. Lily didn’t know there could be a part of Stella that felt this good. Stella seemed to be slightly losing her mind and was breathing heavily. Lily wondered what noises Stella could make if she really concentrated. Still moving her fingers in and out of her, Lily tried to angle her fingers so that the friction would hit her clitoris more directly. She knew she found the right angle when Stella twisted on the sheets, gasping. Her head was angled towards Lily’s chest and she could feel Stella’s warm breaths through her T-shirt. Lily increased her speed and with the same devotion that she applied to beating Stella in exams and on the Quidditch pitch, Lily made Stella come with a glorious moan. Lily could feel Stella’s muscles flutter as waves of pleasure coursed through her. Stella’s face was half-hidden in the sheets, but Lily lifted her head up with her left hand so that she could see Stella’s eyes. Her right hand stayed happily where it was, half in and out of Stella.

Stella looked up at her with a glazed expression. Slowly, breathily, she asked, “Where the fuck did you learn how to do that?”

Lily laughed and planted a kiss on Stella’s lips. “I’m a very good student, you know. I’ll study for hours until I get something right. Usually, it’s so that I can beat a certain smart-alec at my school, but there are other ways of having fun besides winning.” Lily gave Stella’s clit a last twitch before removing her hands from under Stella’s dress.

“Have you never done that to yourself?” Lily asked, as she wiped her hand on the sheets. Stella watched fascinated.

“No, I mean, I thought about it sometimes, but I’d never actually gotten round to trying it. Do you do it a lot?”

“Umm,” Lily started, suddenly a bit embarrassed. “Since last year, quite a bit, but in my defense I think I’ve been a bit sexually frustrated.”

Stella giggled. “Do I make you feel sexually frustrated?”

Lily ducked her eyes. “Fuck, I’m not having this conversation with you.”

“Wait,” Stella pulled at her face playfully. “You can’t be embarrassed now. You just had your hand up my vagina.”

“Jesus, Stella, can you not put it in such graphic terms.”

“Why are you swearing like a Muggle?” Stella laughed, still trying to force Lily to look at her.

When Lily kept her face determinedly planted against the sheets, Stella gave up and just put her hand on Lily’s lower back.

“Lily Luna,” she said, quietly.

“What?” Lily asked, her voice muffled by the sheets.

“I know you’re a very good student, but I’m also a good student. And a voracious learner. You know, my mother was the brightest witch of her age.”

“Do not mention your mother right now,” Lily warned.

“Anyway,” Stella continued, stroking circles into Lily’s back. “I love learning new things. Nothing gives me more pleasure.” She placed unnecessary emphasis on the word pleasure. “And, loathe as I am to admit it, sometimes you do know something that I don’t. So, in honour of this rare occasion where you can teach Stella Malfoy something, would you mind…” she started walking her fingers down Lily’s back… “very much if…” she reached the bottom of Lily’s shirt, “you helped me practice a new skill I have just been introduced to.”

Stella’s hand lingered on Lily’s ass.

Lily slowly rolled around. “If you say anything while doing this, I will kill you,” Lily warned, a deadly glint in her eyes.

Stella held a hand innocently to her chest, “ _Moi_? I am insulted. Now shush, I need to concentrate.”

Stella shifted up on the bed so that her head was level with Lily’s, much like Lily had done before she had started. For a moment, Stella lost her playful side and said softly, “You need to tell me if I do it badly.”

Lily softened at seeing Stella so vulnerable. “You’ll be great. You’re Stella Malfoy.”

“Granger-Malfoy,” Stella teased, her eyebrows quirking up and down.

“Shut up about your mother and get started, you evil witch,” Lily groaned, arching her back in frustration.

“Language, Potter. No wonder your father…” Stella stopped talking when Lily lifted her head to shoot her a murderous glare. “Alright, alright, don’t get your knickers in a twist,” she joked just as she removed the offending piece of clothing.

Lily forgot about her anger and drew in a sharp breath. She kept her eyes closed, because if she opened them and found Stella staring at her she might implode. Instead, Lily focused on what Stella’s hands were doing, trying not to imagine her facial expression.

Stella was inching her hand up Lily’s thigh. Lily held her breath as Stella slowly placed her hands in-between Lily’s legs. She didn’t move her hand and seemed to be studying the feeling. Lily was going to pass out if Stella didn’t do something soon.

But then she did. Slowly, nervously, Stella started moving her hand up and down, much the same way that Lily had moved her hand. After a few tries, Stella found Lily’s sensitive spot and all Lily could do was gasp. She opened her eyes and looked at Stella. Stella’s eyes turned into slits and Lily knew she was screwed. Stella was a quick learner and she had just found her opponent’s weakness. She shot Lily a trademark Malfoy grin and Lily knew she stood no chance.

With a fierce single-mindedness that would have made Hermione Granger fiercely proud in a very, very different context, Stella proceeded to absolutely wreck Lily. Every time Lily gasped or twitched, Stella capitalised on the information and proceeded to use it to leave Lily senseless. When Stella had had enough of exploring Lily and how she could make her moan, she moved her hand up in down in an already skilled way to press against Lily’s clit and make her come. Lily stifled a yell as she felt her muscles twitch around Stella’s hand as her body worked through the waves of pleasure.

“Shit, it really flutters like that,” Stella gasped, jerking her hand back. “I thought it was in my head.” Stella looked horrified. “Did you feel me when I came?”

Lily couldn’t help grinning. “Yes.”

“God, that’s so embarrassing.” Stella fanned herself, a blush creeping up her face.

Lily sat up and took Stella’s face in her hands. “Stella Malfoy, that’s the dumbest fucking thing you’ve ever said.” She kissed Stella hard, pushing her down onto the bed, straddling her hips. Lily broke their kiss, instead planting kisses all over her face. “Why…” kiss, “the fuck…” kiss, “would you be…” kiss, “embarrassed that I made you come?” She finished her assault with another kiss to Stella’s mouth. Lily sat back on her thighs and looked down at the girl trapped between her legs. Stella’s face was flushed and her pupils were huge in her silver eyes. She looked completely wild and uncontrolled and Lily had done that to her. It might have been the proudest moment of her life.

“So, how’d I do?” Stella asked. Lily put her hand under her chin as though she were thinking about it intently.

“Oh, fuck off, Potter,” Stella grumbled, throwing Lily down onto the bed. Lily giggled as she landed. “Admit it, I am a quick learner aren’t I?” she asked.

Lily stroked the side of Stella’s face, wondering how the fuck the universe had conspired to give her the gift that was Stella Malfoy. Smiling, she said, “Well, your mother is the brightest witch of her age.”

“Fuck off, Potter!”

***

On the morning that Stella was supposed to leave, Lily just sat on her bed, watching Stella pack. Lily wondered for the millionth time if it had been a mistake suggesting to fingerfuck Stella, because it was simply going to be another thing that she missed about her. Last night, they had both “gone to bed early” again and proceeded to compete with each other about who could give the other the better orgasm. It was probably not healthy how competitive they were, even in bed, but she couldn’t really complain, because Stella Malfoy really was an exceptionally quick learner.

But that didn’t matter now that Lily was watching her pack to go home and they wouldn’t see each other again for a month, at the earliest. Lily flopped back down on the bed, glaring at the ceiling. This was all so unfair.

“You know, you’re acting like you’ll never see me again,” Stella said calmly from the floor. “I knew you were dramatic, but this is bordering on ridiculous.”

Lily sat up and glared at Stella as she zipped up her bag. “You know, you say mean things when my feelings for you make you scared.”

Stella stopped zipping her bag halfway, Lily’s words having their intended effect. Stella stood up and folded her arms, staring at Lily thoughtfully. “What makes you think it’s _your_ feelings for _me_ that make me scared?”

Fuck.

No matter how much Lily tried to catch Stella unawares, it always backfired and Stella would come up with a retort that would leave Lily catching her breath instead of the other way round.

Stella walked towards the bed and took Lily’s face in her hands. “Just because I stay calm, doesn’t mean I’m not upset, Lily,” she whispered. Lily had known Stella since the day she was born and she could swear that Stella had never said her name that gently before.

Lily wrapped her arms around Stella’s waist and pulled her close. She had never felt this way about another person before and she felt like she was going insane. The thought of Stella leaving made her feel like she was couldn’t breathe anymore. This couldn’t be normal. Hell, this couldn’t be healthy.

“Lily, I’m just a Floo away. I’ll think up lots of excuses to come visit,” Stella tried to soothe her, stroking her hair.

“It’s not the same,” Lily grumbled against Stella’s stomach.

Stella tugged on Lily’s hair until she tilted her head back and met Stella’s eyes. “You will be fine, okay?”

Lily stared up at Stella, feeling completely lost for no real reason.

“In case you’re worried,” Stella murmured, “I’ll think of you every second of every day and I’ll definitely think about you as I struggle to fall asleep.”

A weight lifted off Lily’s chest, a weight that she didn’t even realise was there.

“So you won’t forget me?”

Stella threw her head back and laughed. Her curls bounced around her head and she really did look like some fairy princess in Lily’s eyes.

“You, Lily Luna Potter,” she said, meeting Lily’s eyes again, “are impossible to forget.”

And then she kissed Lily and Lily definitely lost her mind.

***

“Goodbye, Stella. You must Floo in as often as you like. Send my regards to your grandmother,” Ginny said as she hugged Stella tightly to her as they stood in front of the house, waiting for Draco to finish packing the Muggle car that Hermione insisted they drive in. Lily felt petulant as she watched her mother hug Stella like that. If she did that, everyone would think she had gone crazy. It was partly her fault, because Stella and her still acted slightly hostile towards each other in public, but still.

“Goodbye, Aunt Ginny,” Stella said, smiling brightly. Stella mussed Albus’ hair as he finished saying goodbye to Scorpius. Ginny released her and Stella smiled at everyone except Lily. “Bye. I’ll see you next month for the engagement party. Aunt Ginny, you must let me know if I can do anything to help.”

“Of course, I will. But, you simply must go shopping for a dress. I wish I could convince Lily to get a new one.”

“Why doesn’t Lily come over to ours and Stella takes her on a shopping trip?” Draco suggested, materialising in front of the group seemingly out of thin air.

Lily’s mouth dropped open in shock. James sniggered next to her. “I think we’ve all just witnessed Lily experience her absolute worst nightmare.”

“Oh, she’s just scared. She thinks I’ll look better than her at the party, so she’s not even going to make an effort,” Stella quipped.

Oh, she was good. Fucking infuriating, but oh so good.

“Alright, Princess. I’ll take you up on that offer.”

Stella smiled wickedly.

“Good. You can send an owl and organise it,” Draco clapped his hands together as though he had just sealed a business deal.

“Draco, you’re a braver man than I am,” Harry joked.

Draco smiled at his daughter, who was still enjoying being glared at by Lily. “They’ll be fine,” he assured Harry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcome. You can find me on [tumblr](https://richardayoadeshair.tumblr.com/).


	5. Long time no see

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! This might be my favourite chapter yet. It's filled with all of my favourite things from bike rides, to gin, to Draco being a cool dad. I hope you like it!

On Saturday morning, Lily practically leapt out of bed. She ran to her dresser and threw out half of it before groaning. She had nothing to wear! Stella was going to see her and realise how lame she actually was and find some other girl to annoy and give orgasms to.

Jesus, Stella was right. Lily had reached new levels of overdramatic. Fine, Lily would be calm and collected. She would approach this how Stella would. When faced with an opponent, Stella would always look for a weakness to exploit. Lily’s eyes fell on her ripped jean shorts. Well, it was worth a try.

***

“What the fuck are you wearing?” James asked through a mouthful of toast when Lily passed him as she was coming down the stairs.

“What?” she asked looking down at her outfit. She was wearing her Doc Martens and her jean shorts, but had opted this time for a grey crop top that showed a sliver of her stomach. There was no harm in reminding Stella of what she had been missing for the past week. Lily had also added a black leather string choker necklace, imagining Stella looking down at her neck when she saw it and wanting to kiss her there. Not because that was what Lily wanted to do as soon as she saw Stella or anything like that. “Do I look bad?”

James looked her up and down again. “You look underdressed,” he replied, dryly.

“It’s hot,” she retorted, waltzing into the kitchen to talk to her mum.

“Mum, can I go to Stella’s so long? Her Highness told me we need an early start, because I’m such a lost cause.”

Ginny sighed over her mug of tea as she leaned against the counter. “You two say the meanest things to each other without batting an eyelid.”

Lily shrugged, internally laughing. “We’re Potters slash Weasleys slash Grangers slash Malfoys. We’re tough. So, can I go?”

“Yes, yes,” Ginny relented. “But do not kill her, Lily.”

Lily grinned. “Wasn’t planning on it, but now that you mention it…” she trailed off meaningfully.

Ginny lifted a stern finger. “Be nice.”

“Always,” Lily promised.

She walked back into the living room towards the fireplace. She grabbed some Floo powder and couldn’t help the smile that spread across her features. She was going to see Stella again.

***

When Lily materialised, she nearly fell over when two arms grabbed her and pulled her away from the fireplace.

“What the,” she managed before she was yanked out of the room and up a staircase.

Only Stella’s mane of hair was visible, but her tight grip on Lily’s hand discouraged her from arguing. At the top of the stairs, Stella pulled her into the first room on the right. Before Lily could take another breath, Stella slammed her against the door, kissing her as if she were drowning and Lily was oxygen. Lily couldn’t really say she felt differently. She grabbed Stella by the waist and pulled her close, until Lily could feel every inch of her. Stella’s hands were cupping Lily’s face and pushing her further into the door, trying to deepen the kiss. As Lily’s hands roamed freely across Stella’s body, she realised that Stella was still wearing her pyjama shorts, shorts that slipped open very easily. Struggling not to smile as she hatched her plan, Lily snuck her hand down Stella’s shorts and cupped her in her hand.

“Oh my God,” Stella breathed, as she broke their kiss at the new sensation. Lily grinned and immediately started working to make Stella come as fast as she could make it happen. Stella braced her hands against the door, either side of Lily’s head and struggled to catch her breath.

Fuck, Lily had missed this. She had missed making Stella come undone, the way Lily always felt when she was with Stella. With a few more well-angled thrusts, Stella let out a whimper and dropped her head onto Lily’s shoulder.

“Fuck, Lily,” she breathed. “Give a girl a fucking second.”

Lily laughed. “Says the girl who practically dragged me out of a fireplace without so much as a hello.”

Stella lifted her head, smiling with a blissed out expression. “Fair.” Her expression turned serious. “But now I need to return the favour. On the bed,” she said and jerked a finger behind her.

“Patience, Malfoy,” Lily teased and looked around the room. She must have come to Stella’s room at some point, but entering Stella’s space now that they were... them, felt different. Malfoy Manor was ancient and Stella’s room was no different. It had high wooden ceilings and large iron-wrought windows that looked out onto the perfectly manicured Malfoy gardens. Lily bristled at the Slytherin colour scheme; the curtains were a rich emerald velvet that matched the curtains around her four poster bed.

Despite the centuries-old furniture, Stella had clearly made the room her own. On her desk there was a Muggle computer and a few other gadgets that Lily didn’t recognise. There were Muggle photographs covering the walls and even a string of square-shaped photographs that were slightly out of focus hanging above her desk. Beyond photos of the Malfoys, Lily recognised Hermione’s parents and lots of photographs featuring Stella’s best friend, Poppy Longbottom. Poppy was in Paris for the summer, working at her mother, Pansy’s, atelier. For an insecure moment, Lily wondered if that was why Stella was spending time with her, because she was lonely without her best friend, but when she looked over and saw Stella watching her as though she wanted to rip Lily’s clothes off, Lily smiled to herself and kept looking around.

Slowly, so as to aggravate Stella even more, Lily climbed onto the bed and leaned back on her elbows. “So, the bed you say?” she asked innocently.

Stella glared at her and yanked at Lily’s short buttons. Once she had them open, she yanked the shorts down and promptly straddled Lily. Stella looked so intense, Lily thought she might just spontaneously climax. All coherent thought left her, when Stella’s hand slipped in-between her thighs, reaching their target like a ballistic missile.

After, when Lily was lying boneless, absolutely wrecked from Stella’s attentions, Stella gave Lily a satisfied peck on the lips and whispered, “That’s payback.”

“Fuck, Stella, we are going to have to work on our competitive streak or we are both going to become fucking sex addicts.”

“Lily, you say that like it’s a bad thing,” Stella replied calmly, idly stroking Lily’s stomach, cool as can be, as if they had not just got each other off within mere seconds of being reunited. Stella met Lily’s eyes and grinned, “Besides, you’re still working through years of sexual frustration for me.”

“Fuck off, Malfoy!”

***

Once they had cleaned themselves up and Stella had gotten dressed, she led Lily back downstairs. This time Lily could actually look around the manor without Stella dragging her around like a madwoman. Lily had been to the manor a few times, but it was usually at night for parties and she had tended to stick with her parents for most of the time.

“Where are your parents?” she asked Stella, noticing that Stella was still holding her hand.

“My nan fell in her bathroom and my parents went over to help my granddad take her to the hospital. Scorpius is over at Cissa’s for the weekend. So,” Stella grinned, “we have it all to ourselves.”

Lily wondered again at how Stella’s family had managed to stay together through all the ups and downs. How she could now talk about her Muggle grandparents and Draco’s mother, Narcissa, in the same breath. Maybe that’s why Stella seemed to deal with the whole gay thing better than Lily. Stella knew firsthand how much turmoil a family could survive.

Lily was led into a very large kitchen and stood awkwardly by the counter as Stella started tinkering with the kettle. Even though Malfoy Manor was a nexus of very old magic, Stella seemed to do everything the Muggle way. “Potter, you’re being quiet again,” she said, as she poured hot water over some tea leaves, without even looking at Lily. “I’m going to start to insult your hair if you don’t act normal soon.”

“Did you mean what you said during the Quidditch Final?” Lily asked out of the blue.

Stella frowned. “What did I say?”

“You said you liked my haircut.”

Stella laughed. “Lily, do you really want me to spell everything out to you?”

“Spell out what? I’m just asking if you said it to rile me up.”

Stella sighed and put down her teapot. “Fine. Let’s do this. Yes, Lily,” she said the name like it pained her, “I like your haircut. I also like the colour of your hair, I like your eyes and I really like that you own a crop top that I was previously unaware of. We’ve established I like your shorts and I suppose I might sort of be a little bit in love with you, but I’ve never been in love before so I can’t be empirically certain.”

“Shit,” was all Lily could manage.

Stella sighed again. “You see this is why I don’t mention these things. The operating system in your head just crashes.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“It’s a Muggle thing. Have you eaten breakfast?”

Lily walked around the counter so that she could stand closer to Stella. “You can’t just say something like that and then just go on as normal.”

“What? Ask you about breakfast?” Stella asked, deliberately playing dumb.

“Ughhhh,” Lily groaned. “You are so infuriating.”

Stella squealed and grabbed Lily into a hug.

“The fuck are you doing?” Lily squirmed in Stella’s arms.

“I thought you wouldn’t get annoyed with me anymore, but you haven’t changed. Thank fuck.”

Stella let Lily go and beamed at her.

“Well, you’re still as annoying as ever,” Lily told her, scowling. “Me being a little bit in love with you too hasn’t seemed to change that.”

Stella’s smile became softer and there was a look in her eye that made Lily’s heart squeeze painfully.

“So, what do Malfoys eat for breakfast? Swan hearts?”

“Only on special occasions,” Stella replied, still smiling.

***

After breakfast, instead of Flooing to Diagon Alley or maybe even apparating somewhere, Stella took Lily’s hand and walked her outside to the garage. She pushed out a pale blue bicycle and climbed on.

Lily wasn’t sure what was happening as Stella looked at her expectantly. “Come on. You stand on these bars,” she kicked two bits of metal that stuck out at the back wheel, “and then you hold onto my shoulders as we ride. You can also sit on the seat behind me, but I might lose my balance more if we do it like that.”

“Where exactly are we going on a bicycle?”

Stella sighed, as though faced with a particularly tedious child. “We are cycling to the train station and then we’re taking a train to London.”

“Can’t we just apparate there?”

“No, because I want to do it the Muggle way.”

Stella’s chin was sticking out in a gesture that was not unlike her mother when she was acting particularly stubborn. Lily had to admit she looked quite cute.

“Fine. I’ll get on your shitty Muggle bike.”

Lily climbed onto the bars, nearly slipping and having to grab onto Stella’s shoulders. Well, at least she got to touch Stella during this travesty.

“Ready?” Stella asked.

“No.”

Stella laughed and lifted her feet off the ground.

Fine, it wasn’t that bad. The wind blowing her short hair back as Stella smoothly guided them through beautiful, tiny country lanes was nice. Stella’s hair blowing back in the wind and tickling Lily’s chest and arms was definitely not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning. Despite herself, Lily smiled and closed her eyes, reveling in the feeling of flying, with all that was tethering her to the ground being two small metal bars and the shoulders of the girl she loved. No, it really wasn’t that bad at all.

When Lily hopped off the bike at the train station, she was sad that the ride was over so soon. Stella looked her up and down. “Well, it looks like you survived travelling like a Muggle.”

Lily shrugged. “It was alright. I might understand the appeal.”

Stella shook her head, trying not to smile. “Let’s see what you think about the train.”

Stella tied the bike up to the railing and whispered a concealment charm for good measure.

“I have been on trains before,” Lily said, following Stella into the station. “There’s a little thing called the Hogwarts Express, ever heard of it?”

“Yes, but that is still a magical train. Have you ever just caught a train like a Muggle?”

“No,” Lily conceded. “What’s the difference?”

Stella just smiled, refusing to answer. Lily followed along quietly as Stella went up to a machine and used a Muggle credit card to buy their tickets.

“So, you just live like a Muggle during the school holidays?” Lily asked her as they stood on the platform. “You even have a Muggle card.”

Stella shrugged. “I need Muggle money if I want to go around. How do you think I paid for the movie last time?”

“I must admit I wasn’t really paying attention,” Lily said a bit sheepishly.

Stella smiled and threaded her fingers through Lily’s. “Here’s our train,” she nodded towards the train pulling into the station. Stella led them inside and picked an empty carriage and sat down by a window. Her hand stayed entwined with Lily’s on the seat divider between them.

“This feels like being on the Hogwarts Express. I’m not seeing the big difference.”

“Well, for one, we are not related to anyone on this train.”

Lily smiled. “Once again, I admit I can see the appeal.”

“Second,” Stella held up her fingers to emphasise her point, “Muggle technology works here.” She pulled her cellphone from her pocket as well as earphones. More than a few times over the last couple of years since Hermione had given Stella a phone for her twelfth birthday, Lily had loudly complained how annoying the Muggle contraption was and grumbled about Stella’s taste in music.

Stella plugged the earphones in and held out one end to Lily. “I’m not putting that in my ear,” Lily refused sternly.

Stella sighed again. She pushed the earbud in Lily’s ear and placed a kiss on her earlobe. “Things would be so much easier if you would just co-operate.”

Lily was too distracted by the fact that Stella had just kissed her like that in public to protest. They were completely alone in the carriage, but still, it was a nice change of pace.

Stella went back to fiddling with her phone and when she pressed play, the music started in Lily’s ear. Stella sat back and tapped her fingers against Lily’s hand to the beat of the song. Lily sat back against the seat and thought that maybe Muggle music wasn’t so bad.

A new song started playing. “This is my favourite song,” Stella said softly. She leaned her head on Lily’s shoulder and Lily felt that painful squeeze on her heart again.

_Show me show me, show me how you do that trick_ , the words of the song began. Lily shifted her head so that her face was half-hidden in Stella’s hair, still listening to the words.

_You, soft and only_

_You, lost and lonely_

_You, strange as angels_

_Dancing in the deepest oceans_

_Twisting in the water_

_You’re just like dream_

_You’re just like a dream._

***

Lily woke up to Stella rubbing her thumb over Lily’s cheek and telling her to wake up. Lily smiled and gave Stella a sleepy kiss.

“Come on,” Stella smiled. “Let’s go.”

Once in the station, Stella led her down to the underground to catch another train. This journey was much less relaxed and with far more people around them, but at least Stella was still holding her hand and each time the crowded train stopped and started, Lily felt Stella’s chest bump against hers and Lily honestly didn’t mind a thing.

They got out near Knightsbridge and walked towards the high street. Stella seemed to know where she was going and led them to a large shop, mannequins wearing expensive looking clothes lining the shop windows.

Lily hadn’t been shopping with Stella for a while; she had defiantly put her foot down around her thirteenth birthday and since then Hermione and Ginny took their girls shopping separately. Now, a few years older and armed with her own credit card, Lily barely recognised Stella. She had always liked clothes and dressing up, but this Stella was like a drug addict in front of a table of heroin. Lily wondered if she had taken an energy potion or something as she moved from rack to rack at inhuman speed. Within minutes, Stella had amassed a huge pile of clothes for her and Lily to try on.

“Merlin, Malfoy,” Lily groaned, when Stella added another outfit to Lily’s already heavy load. “We just need one dress.”

“I don’t know when you’ll ever come shopping with me again, so I have to make the most of it.”

“You know I only came, because I wanted to see you.”

“You came because you wanted to get into my pants and you’ve already done that, so now we can focus on shopping again,” Stella said as she added yet another dress to the pile.

Lily sighed as once again Stella left her breathless with a simple sentence.

“Alright, I think this is enough for a start. Let’s go try them on.”

In the changing rooms, she ushered Lily into a cubicle. She started dividing the clothes into two piles as Lily lost her mind. “Stella, we cannot be in the same cubicle!”

“Why not?” Stella asked, slipping off her dress. “We can make out in here if you want to, but you can’t go near my underwear without washing your hands. The London Underground is filthy and I don’t feel like getting a UTI.”

Stella picked up a dress from the pile and pulled it over her head. When her head popped through the top, she saw that Lily was still standing motionless in the corner of the small space.

“Do you really want me to leave?” Stella asked.

Lily shook her head. No, as much as it pained her, she was enjoying the view too much.

Stella smirked at her and motioned at a dress. “Try one on.”

Lily dragged her eyes away from Stella’s body and picked up a black and white polka-dotted wrap dress that didn’t look too heinous. She took off her shirt and shorts, determined not to look over and see if Stella was looking at her. As quickly as she could, she wrapped the dress around her body and only looked up once she was fully covered.

Fuck no.

The dress fit perfectly and Lily had to admit it looked quite good on her. The sleeves went down to her wrists, but the material was light and would be perfect for the outdoor engagement party. The only problem was the neckline went almost all the way down to her navel. There wasn’t a chance in hell that Lily was going to show so much cleavage.

“That looks great,” Stella said, happily.

Lily glared at her. “How can you pick a dress with a neckline like this?”

Stella shrugged, zipping up her own dress. “What? You have nice boobs. You should show them off.”

Lily put her hands across her chest. “Don’t look at my boobs.”

Stella laughed. “Lily, you are such a weirdo. You know that I’m probably, technically your girlfriend. It’s part of my job description to appreciate your boobs.”

Lily was going to faint. She needed to get out of this tiny, enclosed space. Stella noticed and put her arms around Lily. That did not help.

“Lily, calm down, please. I don’t have to be your girlfriend if you don’t want me to be,” Stella said, but her voice shook a bit towards the end as if she didn’t really mean the last part.

“You don’t get to back out now, Malfoy,” Lily growled, pulling Stella closer. “You brought it up, so you’re stuck with me.”

“Alright then. So, can I use the girlfriend card to get you to wear that dress?”

“Fuck no,” Lily said, as she released Stella. “I’m not wearing this.”

She untied the dress and picked another one up. Stella sighed and stared wistfully at Lily’s chest. “It really is a shame that you insist on hiding those away. I, on the other hand, have no such qualms.”

She turned towards the mirror and admired herself in the mirror. For the first time, Lily noticed what Stella was wearing. It was a deep emerald colour, typical Slytherin, she thought, and despite it’s modest billowing sleeves that tapered off at her wrists, everything else left very little to the imagination. The dress cut Stella’s legs mid-thigh and Lily felt a blush creep up her face as she looked at Stella’s legs. The blush became a full on wildfire when she looked up and saw how low the dress’s neckline was. Lily followed the path of Stella’s perfect tanned skin, past the soft curve of her breasts and on to her stomach. When Stella turned to look at her back in the mirror, she revealed that the back was cut just as low and Lily was pretty sure if she put her finger just inside the point where the back of the dress met she would feel Stella’s underwear.

“You cannot wear that,” Lily seethed.

Stella glared at her. “You can be prudish about your own clothes, but I get to choose what I wear. And I like this dress. It makes me feel sexy. Don’t you agree?”

Lily wanted to scream. “How the fuck am I supposed to act normal around you if you wear that all night?”

Stella giggled mischievously. “I know, you’re going to implode.”

“Stop making fun of me,” Lily sulked. She threw the dress that she was holding on over her head so that she had at least a few seconds without looking at Stella. This dress was better. It was a simple A-line dress that collected around her waist and flared out again in a flattering way. It was a V-neck dress, but thankfully the neckline was a decent length. If she wore a bowler hat and her Docs, she would look quite cool she thought.

It was then that she noticed Stella was staring at her. She wasn’t smiling and her expression wasn’t teasing at all… just sad.

“What’s wrong?” Lily asked, panicked. “I like this dress, don’t you?”

“It looks good,” Stella replied, simply. “It looks like you.”

Stella started unzipping her dress and threw it on the floor. She picked up another one.

“Are you angry about the dress?” Lily asked in a small voice.

“It’s not about the dress,” Stella said, calmly.

“Then what it is it?”

Stella sighed, buttoning up the checked sundress that she had put on. “I just don’t get you sometimes. It’s like you’re giving mixed signals and I can’t keep up with you.”

“I can’t keep up with you! You’re the one talking about my boobs and getting undressed in front of me the whole time!”

“And you’re the one who kissed me and stuck your hand up my dress first. That’s exactly what I mean. When you’re the one initiating stuff you’re fine with it, but God forbid I compliment you on your body or try to be intimate with you, because you’ll act as though I’m assaulting you. There are two of us in this relationship, not just you.”

Lily didn’t know what to say. Stella was right. Lily loved surprising Stella and catching her off guard, but if Stella did the same, Lily became anxious and withdrew.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “You’re right.”

Stella folded her arms across her chest, clearly waiting for more.

“I guess…” Lily tried, “I guess I keep forgetting that you have feelings too. And wants. And I guess… I haven’t really been listening to what you want to do. We’ve been doing everything on my terms.”

“And I’m okay with that,” Stella said. “We can do this on your terms and go at your speed, but I think you need to figure out what your speed is. Because you sometimes race ahead at 100 miles an hour and then when I try to catch up, you pull the brakes.”

Stella was looking at Lily with that expression of open vulnerability that scared Lily more than anything else. But listening to Stella speak, maybe Lily needed to work through this fear so that she could meet Stella in the middle, instead of their relationship always being determined by Lily’s anxieties and insecurities.

“I think I need to work on my insecurities. Like, I can’t believe that you actually like me, so every time you do something to show it, it scares me and I think you’re playing some elaborate joke on me.”

Stella took Lily’s hands in hers. “I wish I could help you, Lily, but there are only so many ways I can tell you how I feel. It’s up to you to believe me or not.”

Lily nodded, looking at their joined hands. She looked up and smiled at Stella. “You should wear the dress you want to.”

“Even if I look insanely sexy in it?” Stella teased.

Lily smiled. “Even if you look insanely sexy in it.”

They continued trying on dresses after that, neither one speaking.

Lily decided to take the black A-line dress and in an attempt at making everything up to Stella, she asked her if they could look for new ankle boots to pair with it. Stella instantly perked up and dragged Lily to three more shops before she was satisfied.

With four full bags of shopping, Stella sank into a chair on the terrace of a trendy café in Belgravia. White tables were placed around a faux-garden that included an entire wall covered in deceivingly real-looking pastel-coloured roses. If Lily had to imagine the type of place Stella liked to hang around, it really would be somewhere like this.

Lily was still looking at the menu when Stella took it out of her hands and told the waiter they would have two large Gin & Tonics.

“Doesn’t that have alcohol in it?” Lily asked when the waiter was gone.

“Yes,” Stella smiled mischievously.

“I’ve never drunk alcohol before,” Lily admitted.

“Are you opposed to it?”

Lily grinned. “Not in the slightest.”

***

Two Gin & Tonics later, Lily was giggling uncontrollably. “Do you remember how angry your mum was when I told her you’d dared me to do it?”

They were talking about the time Lily broke her arm after Stella had dared Lily to climb onto the roof. Stella chuckled at the memory. “I hadn’t realised before that moment that my parents could actually get angry at me. You like to call me a spoilt princess, but I promise you, after that day they were rather severe with me. I would constantly get lectures about how I needed to stop provoking you.”

“I wonder what they’d say if they saw us now,” Lily wondered out loud.

Stella shrugged. After a while she said, “My dad once told me what happened when he told his parents about my mum. He was planning on asking her to marry him, but before he could do that, he needed to know where he stood with his family. Not because that would have changed his decision, but just so that he could be honest with mum about what a life with him would look like. He said he was completely terrified. Marrying a Muggleborn was going against everything that his parents believed in and even after everything that happened in the war, it was hard to let go of those beliefs. His dad reacted exactly how he had expected. Angry and yelling and threatening to disown him. But his mum… She just hugged him. She told him that all she wanted was for him to be happy.”

“And then she threatened Lucius with divorce,” Lily prompted.

Stella laughed. “Yes, then she did that. My poor grandfather. He never stood a chance against the Malfoy women. Mum says he cried when he saw me for the first time.”

“Can I ask you something?”

Stella nodded. “You can ask me anything.”

“Why do you like all of this Muggle stuff so much? I’d get it if you didn’t have a relationship with your dad’s side of the family, but you do. So why do you care about this stuff?”

“Because it’s a part of me. My mum’s Muggleborn. It doesn’t matter who she married, that will never change. And yes, I love my dad’s family, but I love my Muggle grandparents as well. My granddad taught me how to ride a bike. My mum bought me a phone so that I could call my nan every night when she was getting chemo. I know your dad ignores anything to do with the Muggle world, but I can’t.”

Stella toyed with the glass in front of her. She seemed to want to say more, so Lily stayed quiet, giving her the space to talk.

“Plus,” she continued, slowly, “no-one knows me here. When a Muggle hears Malfoy or Granger they just move on. Nobody cares. But in the magical world… Well, you know. Your father’s Harry Potter.”

“I know. People don’t even see you, they just see your parents.”

Stella nodded. “It’s nice to have a break sometimes.”

Lily reached over to take Stella’s hand. “We should have talked more like this before. We’re uniquely positioned to understand each other, but all we did was talk over each other.”

Stella slid her thumb up and down Lily’s hand. “I don’t think we were ready before for this.”

“What do you mean?”

“This is intense. We’re intense. I don’t think people normally start relationships with feelings like ours. We have a lot of history and that’s a lot of baggage for a new couple. We’re barely dealing with it now, can you imagine if you’d had your revelation two years ago?”

Lily thought back to their Fourth Year and how she had finally been made Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and her entire existence became about training in order to beat the Slytherin team.

“It seems impossible, but I would have been an even bigger mess than I am right now,” Lily admitted.

“You’re not a mess, Lily. The situation’s a bit messy, though.” Stella laughed.

Lily smiled and took another drink, feeling the alcohol course through her system and make her feel like she was floating.

***

Lily couldn’t remember much of their journey home. There were brief flashes of her making out with Stella in the train on the way back. There were also flashes of her howling as she held onto Stella’s shoulders while they cycled back to Malfoy Manor. Still half-asleep, Lily hoped the flash of her trying to wrap her arms around Stella’s neck that caused Stella to lose her balance and crash the bike down a lane was just a nightmare. Unfortunately, as consciousness slowly crept in, Lily realised that her entire body felt bruised and battered, consistant with the fall she half-remembered.

“I cannot believe you got her drunk,” an angry voice whispered somewhere in the room.

“It was just two G&Ts and it was hours ago. I don’t how she could have still been so drunk after the whole train ride back,” Stella’s voice whispered back.

Lily cracked open an eyelid. She looked up at the high, wooden ceilings of what she assumed was a room in Malfoy Manor. She seemed to be lying on some sort of couch. Stella and her mother were standing at the other end of the room, clearly having an argument, but trying not to wake her.

“Stella, I know you two have your issues, but you cannot treat her like this,” Hermione scolded.

“We were having fun, Mum. How can you think I meant for this to happen?” Stella asked in a hurt voice.

“She’s telling the truth,” Lily croaked from the couch.

Hermione whirled around and immediately came to kneel down in front of her. Stella followed closely behind, her eyes red and swollen from crying. She reached out her hands to touch Lily, but stopped herself, instead flapping her hands around as though she didn’t know what to do with herself.

“How are you feeling, darling?” Hermione asked gently, stroking Lily’s face.

“I’m fine. What happened?” she asked, looking at Stella.

“Stella got you drunk and then you fell off her bike and hit your head. I cast a diagnostic spell and everything’s fine. You just have a few scrapes and bruises,” Hermione answered.

“Stella didn’t get me drunk, she just bought them for me.”

“What is the difference?” Hermione asked, struggling to keep the anger out of her voice.

“Ow,” Lily groaned, touching her head. Hermione’s anger was making her head hurt.

“Lily?” Stella asked worriedly, trying to come closer to Lily.

“You stay there, young lady,” Hermione warned her daughter. She lifted Lily’s head and put a potion bottle to her lips. “Here this will help with the headache.”

Lily nearly gagged as she struggled to swallow the foul-tasting potion.

“There, there,” Hermione soothed. “Just rest your head for a bit and you’ll feel better. We’ll be just outside if you need anything.”

Hermione stood up before Lily could protest and dragged Stella out of the room, barely allowing her a backward glance. Lily wanted to go after them, but the potion made her feel even more woozy than she already was.

***

The next time she woke up, Stella was asleep on the floor next to her, curled up in a little ball. Lily slowly eased up onto her elbow and was happy to find that the room wasn’t spinning anymore. She put a hand on Stella’s arm to wake her up. Stella’s eyes drifted open slowly, but once they focused on Lily she shot up and put her hands on Lily’s face.

“Are you okay? Does your head still hurt?” she asked, frantically.

“I’m fine,” Lily reassured her, nuzzling her nose against Stella’s. “What happened?”

Stella sighed in relief. “You had the bright idea to try kissing me while we were riding back and I lost control. I was okay except for a few scrapes, but you wouldn’t wake up.” Tears were welling in Stella’s eyes again. “I had to call my parents. I didn’t know what to do.”

Lily put her arms round Stella’s head and pulled her into her chest. “You did the right thing, Stella. It’s not your fault.”

Stella half-laughed, half-sobbed. “My parents are furious. They think it’s all some sort of mean prank that I pulled on you. I’m forbidden from going out or doing anything before Teddy and Victoire’s engagement party. They’ll review my privileges afterwards.”

“Are you serious?” Lily asked, wiping away Stella’s tears.

Stella nodded. “I’m technically not even allowed out of my room until you’ve gone home, but I couldn’t leave you down here by yourself.”

“Are my parents coming to fetch me?”

“No,” Stella said, shaking her head. “My dad’s driving you down tomorrow. You don’t have a concussion, but they’re still worried about your head.”

“I’ll talk to them. I’ll tell them it wasn’t your fault,” Lily promised.

Stella smiled sadly. “It won’t help. My dad believes me, but my mum is convinced I planned this somehow. They always think the worst of me when it comes to you.”

“My parents, too. My mom told me not to kill you today.”

Stella laughed bitterly. “Well, I almost killed you.”

Lily shifted back on the couch. “Come here.”

Stella climbed onto the couch and Lily wrapped her in her chest.

“I’m sorry for how today ended, Stella.”

“Me too.”

“Stella?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

***

The next morning, Stella slipped off the couch very early, not wanting to make her parents angrier than they already were. When Stella was gone, Lily lay back on the couch feeling completely hopeless. The only way to convince Stella’s parents that they had just been having fun, would require telling them about their relationship and Lily simply wasn’t ready for that conversation yet. Stella taking the blame for Lily’s cowardice made her feel awful.

Hermione came in early to check on Lily and was happy to find her awake and responsive. She told her that Draco was going to take her home as soon as she was ready. Her parents knew about what happened and Hermione had already apologised profusely. Lily tried to defend Stella, but Hermione just cut her off.

By the time Draco came to find her, Lily felt on the verge of tears. Stella was in so much trouble and Lily couldn’t do anything about it. And that meant they wouldn’t be able to see each other for weeks. In a daze, she followed Draco and climbed into the car. Draco told her to wait there, he had just remembered he actually had some potting soil for Mrs. Weasley that he could drop off on the trip. Lily mumbled something as he left and kept wallowing in her misery.

“Hey.”

Lily nearly jumped out of her skin. Stella had somehow got into the car without her noticing and Lily’s heart was racing uncontrollably.

“Fuck, Stella. You’re going to give me a heart attack.”

Stella smiled briefly, but became serious again.

“Take this,” she said, holding out her phone and a charger.

“I don’t know how to use this,” Lily told her.

“It’s fine, I’ll explain later. All you need to do, is slide across the bottom to answer it, okay? I’ll call you tonight at 10. Okay?”

Lily wasn’t sure, but she nodded, taking the phone and charger.

Stella smiled. “Okay. I need to go.”

Lily looked at Stella trying to memorise her face. Stella brought her lips to Lily’s and kissed her deeply. When she pulled away, Lily reached forward to pull her back.

“I need to go. I’ll see you at Teddy’s party.” Stella climbed out of the car. She leaned back down again. “Your dress and shoes are in the boot. I look forward to seeing you in it.”

With a Malfoy grin, Stella ran back into the house.

Lily watched her go in the side mirror until she saw Draco coming up the path. She quickly cast a concealment charm over the phone so that he wouldn’t notice it.

“Alright,” Draco said as he settled into the driver’s seat. “Let’s go face the wrath of Harry Potter.”

“I’m more worried about my mum, to be honest.”

Draco paled. “I’m hoping to appeal to her maternal instincts that her cub is safe and sound to the point where she forgets to shoot the messenger.”

Lily laughed. Stella’s dad was actually secretly funny. And very kind.

“Why are you being nice to me? Hermione is furious.”

Draco toyed with his fingers, before answering. “Look, it’s none of my business until you feel like talking to me, so this is distinctly not me bringing it up, but you and Stella,” he paused, as if picking his words carefully, “I think there’s more to your relationship than you let on. You aren’t two kids squabbling over sweets anymore and I think Hermione struggles to see that. She saw Stella crying and thought she was upset about being in trouble, but I thought I saw her cry because she was worried about you. I may be completely wrong.”

Lily stayed quiet. She would never have guessed that Draco Malfoy would be the adult in her life that realised something was going on between her and Stella.

“Thank you,” she said, not quite sure how to reply to his considerate explanation.

Draco smiled, not unlike the way Stella smiled when she was being sincere. “Any time, kid. Now we better go or your mother will have another reason to kill a Malfoy today.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcome. You can find me on [tumblr](https://richardayoadeshair.tumblr.com/).


	6. The New Normal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This chapter is quite short, but I promise to update again quickly. Please enjoy!

Draco was mostly right about Ginny’s reaction. She nearly burst into tears when she saw the scrape on Lily’s forehead and immediately pulled her into a hug. Once she had verified that Lily was mostly intact, she started yelling at her. Harry soon joined in and Lily felt like sinking into the ground. Draco smiled sadly at Lily, but each time he tried to interrupt, her parents glared at him. He put a hand on her shoulder in greeting, as Harry led him outside.

After a sound talking to, her parents doled out her punishment. Not unlike Stella, Lily was forbidden from leaving the house. She was banned from playing Quidditch and had to help with chores around the house, without the use of magic. Under different circumstances, she would have been upset by the punishment, but at the moment the prospect of not seeing Stella for a month was worse than anything her mum could dream up.

When everything was over, she decided to go hide out at her grandparents’. Molly scowled at her for a moment, before thinking up a few menial tasks to keep Lily busy. At least she didn’t lecture her. Lily spent the rest of the day helping her grandmother and then slinked home for dinner.

At 21h30, Lily claimed exhaustion and told her parents she was going to bed. Even though she could tell they were still angry, they weren’t actively yelling at her, so that was an improvement.

Lily showered quickly and got into bed. She stared at Stella’s phone waiting for it to ring. Tired from the events of the previous night, Lily was dozing off when the violent buzzing of the phone woke her up. Frantically, she tried to slide to answer like the stupid thing said, but it didn’t work. The phone stopped buzzing.

“Fuck!,” she yelled, slamming a fist into the bed.

The phone buzzed again. This time, Lily tried to stay calm and carefully slid her finger across the screen. It worked!

“Hello?” Stella said through the phone.

“Your fucking phone wouldn’t let me answer it,” Lily yelled into what she hoped was the correct part of the phone.

“Well, hello to you too, Potter.”

Lily smiled, her irritation evaporating.

“I’ve never talked into a phone before, you know.”

“I assumed. Convenient, though, don’t you think?”

“I’d prefer it if you were lying next to me in bed, but under the circumstances I suppose this will have to do.”

“I miss your bed,” Stella murmured wistfully.

“I miss you.”

“How did your parents take it?” Stella asked.

“Ughhh,” Lily groaned softly. “They freaked out and have punished me severely, but overall they’re happy that I’m safe and sound. James high-fived me and told me he’s very impressed with the two of us.”

Stella laughed. “At least someone is.”

“How was your day?” Lily asked, closing her eyes and trying to imagine that Stella was lying next to her.

“Boring. I just sat around and read most of the day. I went swimming this afternoon, but I could swear my mum was glaring at me for having too much fun. I’ve been hiding in my room ever since.”

“How are you calling me if I have your phone?”

“How much do you know about the internet?”

“Uhhh…” Lily began.

“Without going into details, I can call you through my computer.”

Lily frowned. As she understood it, phones were for calling and computers were for… writing or something that was definitely not calling.

“You’re wondering how a computer can call a phone, aren’t you?” Stella asked.

“Yes…” Lily replied, a bit sheepishly.

Stella took a breath. “Alright, I’ll go into a little bit of detail. The internet is this thing that connects devices all over the world that have access to the internet. It works like magic in a way. If someone has magic and they’re in a spot that allows magic, they can perform spells. My computer is connected to the internet and so’s my phone, so I can call you. I wish I had a Webcam for my desktop, then I could see your face. Too bad I gave my laptop to Scorpius.”

“Did your mum teach you about all this?” Lily didn’t understand half the words Stella was using, but after their conversation about Stella’s interest in Muggle life, Lily wanted to know more about how she found out all these things.

“She taught me some things, but she’s been part of the magical world for so long that she’s not really up to date. When I asked her to install wi-fi in the manor, I had to prepare a proper presentation as to why it would be useful. I taught myself most things and asked my grandparents other things. They’re also not the most up to date, truth be told.”

Lily stayed quiet, debating if she could ask what wi-fi was.

“Wi-fi is wireless internet,” Stella quickly supplied.

“I feel really stupid not knowing about all of this stuff.”

“You shouldn’t feel that way. You grew up with two wizards for parents and everyone in your extended family is a wizard. I’m only interested, because I actually know Muggles.”

“My dad never talks about the Muggle world. His aunt and cousin are still alive, you know.”

“From what I understand, he didn’t have the best experience with the Muggle world. You can’t really blame him.”

Lily sighed. “I guess not. Listening to you, it just feels like I haven’t been taught something about where my family comes from.”

“Have you ever asked your father about this?”

“No, not really. I don’t like making him talk about painful things.”

Stella stayed quiet on the other end of the line.

“What?” Lily asked nervously.

“Can I be honest?”

“Yes.”

“I think your dad should talk about the painful things. I don’t mean that you need to force him to talk about things that are too traumatic or personal, but he owes it to his kids and he owes it to himself.”

“Is that what your dad does? Tell you about being a Death Eater?” Lily asked harshly, feeling a bit defensive. She regretted her words as soon as they left her mouth.

“Yes, actually,” Stella replied haughtily.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it as mean as it sounded.”

Stella sighed. “It’s fine. It’s nothing I haven’t heard before. But yes, he does talk about it. When I was nine my parents sat me down and explained what had happened during the war and which side my dad had been on. After that, any time I had a question, they both answered honestly. As I got older they started telling me the worst of the stories. Like Bellatrix torturing Mum and why the drawing room is off limits. And my dad’s involvement in Dumbledore’s death.”

Stella’s voice got softer and softer as she spoke. Lily felt jealous of Stella for having parents that explained these things to her. Her own understanding of her parents’ past came from bits and pieces that she overheard in the house and things her brother told her. It was only when she arrived at Hogwarts that she was able to find and read accounts about what had actually happened.

“Are you angry at your dad for his past?”

Stella stayed quiet and Lily wondered if that was too personal a question.

“I was for a long time. Mum told me what happened to her before we went into Third Year so that I would be prepared for the Unforgiveable Curses. I didn’t talk to my dad for the rest of the summer. I didn’t even say goodbye to him when I left for school again. But he just… let me. He would bring me a cup of tea every morning just like he always did. He put fresh flowers in my room every week. Like nothing had happened. When I was back at school, he started writing me letters. Usually he would just read the letters we sent Mum and tell her to put something in hers if he wanted to tell us something specific. But that year he wrote me a letter a week. Sometimes he would tell me something about the war, or his parents, but most of the time he just talked about mundane things. How his rosebushes were doing or how Mum’s new cat was already destroying the upholstery. When I came home for Christmas I ran into his arms and just hugged him.”

“What made you forgive him?”

“I realised he was still my dad. Yes, all of those things were a part of his history, but if I looked at who he was now, the type of father he was and husband, I couldn’t help but love him. There are moments where I still struggle to deal with everything, but usually when I think like that I’ll talk to my Mum. After all, she’s the person who has had to do the most forgiving in all of this.”

“I can’t believe you and your dad ever fight. You’re so close.”

“Every family fights, Lily. It’s just not always clear from the outside.”

Lily supposed that was true.

“Please can we stop talking about these depressing things now. We’re becoming disturbingly morbid.”

Lily laughed. “What does Her Highness want to talk about instead?”

“What are you wearing?” Stella asked seriously.

***

Lily talked to Stella on the phone until midnight when it started beeping angrily saying low battery. Stella had to explain how to plug in the charging cable. Lily thought it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever done, but Stella just told her to get over it if she wanted Stella to call her again the following night. Lily stopped complaining rather quickly.

Luckily, when they refurbished the Burrow, Hermione had convinced Harry to put in at least one plug in each room. No-one else seemed to use them except Hermione and Stella, but Lily was very grateful for it now. With the phone charging, Lily said goodbye to Stella and went to bed. She thought she would struggle to fall asleep, but hearing Stella’s voice last thing before bed allowed her to pretend that she was still with her.

***

After that night, Lily and Stella grew used to their new normal and found their own rhythm. During the day, they entertained themselves as best they could in the separate houses. They played with their little brothers, Lily would occasionally gamble with sweets with James and Stella swam in her pool. Their days were rather uneventful, but each night was a highlight. Stella would call at 10 and then they would talk until well past midnight. Through these conversations, Lily felt like she was getting to know Stella all over again. It was hard to reconcile how much Lily knew about Stella simply from having grown up with her, with all the things that Lily knew nothing about. Stella had taken on a new importance in Lily’s life and this resulted in everything there was to know about her taking on new meaning.

As Teddy and Victoire’s engagement party came closer in time, Lily grew more and more restless. She was desperate to see Stella, but time seemed to pass slowly, like thick syrup through a sieve. She was almost relieved when the preparations for the party started taking place around the Burrow and Lily could distract herself by helping with everything from baking to tent installation. The last week before the party still went by too slowly for Lily’s liking, but at least it was a slight improvement over the previous two weeks.

The Wednesday before the party, Victoire arrived with her mother to finalise the preparations for the party themselves. Victoire was tall and blonde, like her mother, but she was quick to smile and had a warm heart like her father. Where Lily had a temper like a grumpy cat caught in a rainstorm, her elder cousin was placid like a mountain lake on a windless day. No matter what was going on in Lily’s life, as soon as she saw Victoire she felt like she could handle anything.

Lily had been lying on the grass near the Quidditch pitch, daydreaming about riding a bike when she heard her name being called. She looked up to see Victoire walking towards her, wearing white shorts with a loose-fitting blouse, as though she were wondering around the south of France and not her grandparents’ back garden. Victoire shared Stella’s uncanny ability to always look effortlessly flawless.

Lily jumped up and ran to hug her cousin. “Vicky!” she yelled excitedly.

“Don’t call me that!” Victoire groused for the millionth time. She claimed to hate Lily’s nickname for her, but Lily suspected that she secretly liked it.

“I’ve missed you so much,” Lily continued unperturbed, squeezing Victoire close before letting her go. “Are you excited for your party?”

Victoire smiled shyly. “Yes.”

“Is Teddy here as well?” Lily asked.

Victoire pouted. “No, he has to work. He’s only coming on Friday.”

Lily grinned. “That means I get you all to myself for two days.”

Victoire pinched Lily. “Just wait till you get a boyfriend. Then I’ll be the one begging you to spend time with me.”

Lily’s smile dropped. “What’s wrong?” Victoire asked, seeing Lily’s expression.

Lily forced a smile. “It’s nothing. Come on let’s go inside and get something to drink. Tell me what you’ve been up to.”

***

As excited as Lily had been to see her cousin again, now that they were together Lily felt completely awkward. The Stella-sized elephant in the room made her feel uncertain about how to act with Victoire. Luckily, Victoire was too distracted by her engagement party to notice Lily acting strangely.

“So, my Mum told me about your little shopping trip with Stella Malfoy,” Victoire grinned over her teacup as they sat at the kitchen table.

Lily sighed. “What exactly have my parents been telling everyone?”

Victoire shrugged. “Just that Stella got you drunk.”

“We drank together and I just happened to have a lower tolerance than her. That’s all.”

Victoire raised an eyebrow at her skeptically. “Are you and Stella actually getting along?”

“We have been known to get along occasionally,” Lily replied, defensively. Why did everyone make out as if Stella and Lily were sworn enemies? Sure, they were rivals, but even at their worst they never actually wished the other person harm.

“Alright, I’ll drop the subject. Just please don’t fight with Stella at my party.”

Oh, they weren’t going to be fighting, Lily thought to herself. They were going to be far too busy finding other ways to entertain themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcome. You can find me on [tumblr](https://richardayoadeshair.tumblr.com/).


	7. The Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I hope that wasn't too long a wait for the new chapter. Be warned, here there be smut. Enjoy!

Teddy and Victoire’s engagement party was to be a large, late-afternoon cocktail party that would be filled with food and dancing. There was a huge trestle table groaning under the weight of all the food Molly Weasley had prepared and other smaller tables for the whole Weasley clan and assorted friends to gather around. The Longbottoms and Lovegoods were there, along with various other school friends belonging to both the younger and older generations.

Lily dutifully greeted everyone that arrived, smiling politely as they complimented her on her lovely dress. Luna smiled dreamily at her and told her she looked lovely with make-up on. The make-up had been a last minute addition to Lily’s look. She would deny it if anybody asked, but she rather liked herself with smoky eyes and dark red lips.

Harry Longbottom teased her when he saw her and she jokingly threatened to punch him, before he ran off to look for James, laughing. Lily wandered to the side of the tent and leaned against an empty table to watch Victoire and Teddy smile as they greeted their guests arm in arm. Teddy’s hand rested on Victoire’s lower back and each time she laughed, she put her hand on his chest. Lily felt a pang of jealousy at the easy intimacy between them.

“Now, what is a pretty girl like you doing standing here all alone?” a voice asked softly by Lily’s ear. She didn’t turn to look at the owner of the voice, but she couldn’t help the grin spreading across her face.

“Oh, you know, just waiting for someone,” she said casually.

“Who are you waiting for?”

Lily felt Stella lean against the table next to her, but she kept her eyes on her cousin.

“Just some girl. You wouldn’t know her. She’s kind of a brat, but I told her I’d wait for her at the party, so what can you do. I’m a woman of my word.” She turned her head to look at Stella, whose eyes were pulled into slits.

“What if she doesn’t show up?” Stella asked.

“Well,” Lily frowned, as though thinking carefully. “I guess I’d have to find someone else to sneak into my room with me.”

“Aha,” Stella nodded, thoughtfully. “And what would you do with this person in your room?”

Lily smiled and leaned closer so that she could whisper in Stella’s ear, “Everything.”

Stella coughed, fanning her face.

“Jesus, it’s hot in here. I don’t think people should have parties in tents in the dead of summer.”

Lily chuckled at Stella’s reaction. Appreciatively, she took the opportunity to look Stella up and down. Instead of the dress that had caused their argument in the changing rooms, Stella was wearing a long-sleeved floral dress made out of a light blue-green diaphanous material and was covered with embroidered flowers. Her hair was pulled back in an almost Grecian style, some of it piled on top of her head, with the rest flowing like water down her shoulders. Lily couldn’t help but follow the curve of Stella’s skin as the dress’s neckline dipped low.

“Potter, you’re undressing me with your eyes,” Stella murmured, softly, a Malfoy grin spread across her face. She did a twirl looking like an annoyingly pretty fairy. “Do you approve?”

“It’s not bad,” Lily answered, feigning boredom.

Stella pulled an annoyed face. “Fine, I won’t compliment you either,” she said in a huff, leaning back against the table next to Lily.

Slowly, making sure no-one was looking their way, Lily inched her fingers forward to lightly touch the hand that Stella was leaning against the table. She turned her head towards Stella’s ear again, ignoring the smell of Stella’s hair so that she didn’t lose the nerve to say what she needed to. “It’s not bad,” she said , her voice low. “But I think I’d like it more on my bedroom floor.”

Stella looked down at their lightly touching fingers, a small blush creeping up her throat. “And what would we do once my dress was off?” Stella asked, her voice just as breathy as Lily’s.

Lily leaned back, standing up. “Like I said. Everything.” She turned on her heel and walked out of the tent. With a struggle, she resisted the urge to look back at Stella. They were playing a dangerous game, but Lily couldn’t help it. She needed Stella. Three weeks apart from her were torture. Seeing her again was like seeing an oasis after wandering a desert for weeks. She was dying of thirst and all that could save her was Stella Malfoy.

***

Lily sat on the edge of her bed, waiting for Stella. It was not unlike that first night after they had kissed. She wasn’t sure if Stella would come, but her heart was hammering in her chest regardless.

Impossibly, her heart started beating even faster when she saw Stella’s head bob up the stairs. Stella walked in and closed the door, her wand already in her hand. She placed the wand on the dresser when she was finished and leaned back against the door, finally looking at Lily.

Lily couldn’t move. Stella was looking at her with such an intensity in her silver eyes, that Lily lost the ability to breathe. Without breaking eye-contact, Stella lifted her hands to the side of her dress and slowly lowered the zip. With a shrug of her shoulders she pulled the dress down and let it drop to the floor. Lily stifled a gasp.

Under her dress, Stella was wearing only a pair of white underwear, no bra in sight.

“Take off your dress,” Stella ordered softly.

Completely unable to form a coherent thought, Lily stood up and slipped off her dress. She stood across from Stella, wearing just her underwear. Stella’s eyes drifted slowly across Lily’s body and she forced herself to not feel self-conscious. Instead, she distracted herself by studying Stella just as intently as she was being studied. Biting her lip, Lily watched as Stella walked towards her. Stella stopped in front of her and Lily could feel Stella’s deep breaths against her bare skin.

Stella lifted her hands and put them on Lily’s shoulders, brushing her lips against Lily’s. She drew back her head just enough to look into Lily’s eyes. “Are you sure?” she whispered. Lily nodded, their noses rubbing against each other. Stella drew Lily in for another kiss, this time opening her mouth as though she wanted to inhale Lily. Her hands cupped Lily’s face pulling her closer and closer; Lily slipping her hands across Stella’s bare stomach and pushing them together until every inch of their skin was touching. Stella let go of Lily’s face to thread her arms behind Lily’s back to unclasp her bra. Lily threw off the bra as soon as it was loose and went back to sliding her hands across Stella’s body. Stella’s hands wandered across Lily’s now bare chest, touching and squeezing her breasts. Lily moaned softly and she felt Stella smile against her lips. With a soft push, Lily fell down onto the bed, Stella leaning over her. Still touching Lily’s chest, Stella started kissing Lily’s neck, dragging her tongue across the sensitive skin.

“Oh, God,” Lily moaned. Stella laughed against her neck, tickling the skin even more.

“You can tell me to stop,” Stella suggested.

“Fuck no,” Lily answered. Stella laughed again and continued to explore Lily’s neck.

Too soon, Stella changed the direction of her explorations and dropped kisses all the way down Lily’s chest. She licked Lily’s navel and Lily arched her back, unable to contain herself. Encouraged, Stella continued down and lifted one of Lily’s legs over her shoulder, kissing her inner thigh. Lily dug her fingers into Stella’s hair, needing something to hold onto, not caring if she destroyed her perfectly arranged curls. Stella lowered her head between Lily’s thighs and kissed the top of Lily’s underwear Then she slowly slipped off the small piece of cloth and trailed her fingers all down Lily’s legs as she removed it. Stella leaned forward again and lowered herself until she rested between Lily’s thighs. Gently, she lifted one leg over her shoulder like before and paused. Lily could feel Stella’s shallow breaths against her sensitive skin. She wondered if she should say something, but then Stella lowered her lips and her tongue was against Lily’s skin and Lily lost her train of thought. Fuck, fuck, fuck, was all her brain could manage.

Stella slid her tongue up and down against Lily’s centre, changing direction each time Lily gasped or moaned. She teased the area around Lily’s most sensitive spot and Lily thought she would die if Stella didn’t relieve the pressure. No longer in control of her body, she started moving her hips up and down, creating even more friction between Stella’s tongue and Lily’s body. Stella caught on quickly, putting her hands on Lily’s hips so that she could get a better angle. She honed in her attack on Lily’s most sensitive spot and with a loud moan, Lily fell back onto the bed, waves of pleasure rolling across her body. She took deep gulps of air, trying to get her breath back, holding a hand against her forehead and feeling how wet it was. Stella’s tongue was no longer inside her, but she was trailing kisses across Lily’s lower stomach. As Lily got her breathing under control, Stella lifted herself up so that she lay with her chin resting on Lily’s chest.

Lily thread her fingers through Stella’s hair, now completely ruined. “I can’t believe we just did that with our whole family downstairs.”

Stella giggled against Lily’s chest, covering her face with one of her hands. “Don’t remind me,” she said, embarrassed. Stella was so adorable when she was embarrassed.

Her head feeling clearer, Lily sat up and gently pushed Stella off her chest. She put her hand behind Stella’s neck and pulled her closer, until she could kiss Stella’s neck. With each movement of her tongue, she found a new part of Stella to worship. Her skin was so soft that Lily couldn’t help grazing it with her teeth, fighting the urge to bite the skin and never let go. With one hand tangled in Stella’s hair, she trailed the other down Stella’s stomach and pulled off her underwear. Stella’s breath hitched when Lily’s fingers entered her. Lily captured Stella’s mouth in hers one last time before lowering herself down, still moving her fingers inside Stella. Lily kissed Stella’s legs as she pulled one aside, then the other. Gently, she rubbed Stella’s sensitive spot with her fingers before replacing them with her mouth. Stella moaned loudly and squeezed Lily’s head with her thighs. Lily slowed down and decided to tease Stella, by slowly moving her tongue around before drawing her head back. Finding a rhythm, she slowly eased her tongue into Stella, before quickly pulling back out again. When Stella couldn’t take this anymore, she said breathily, “Stop being such a fucking tease, Potter.”

Lily nearly sputtered while still inside Stella. She found her bearings again and continued her teasing, but gradually she started moving her tongue faster, placing more pressure on Stella’s sensitive spot and sucking meaningfully.

“Oh, God,” Stella moaned, close. “Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God.”

With a final concerted effort, Lily brought Stella to climax. “Fucking finally,” Stella moaned, straightening her legs and squeezing Lily tightly.

“You’re so impatient, Princess,” Lily said as she pinched Stella’s inner thigh.

Stella pushed herself up onto her elbows so that she could grin down at Lily.

“I’ll get you back for that, you know,” she threatened.

Lily climbed higher onto the bed and put her face in Stella’s neck, kissing her just below her ear. “I look forward to it.”

***

They lay in bed for a while, not kissing or anything, just holding onto each other and drawing lazy patterns across each other’s skin.

“We should go downstairs,” Stella said, breaking the silence. “They’re probably wondering where we’ve disappeared to.”

Lily rolled onto her back, sighing. “I suppose you’re right.”

Stella made no move to go and kept running her hand up Lily’s inner arm.

“Did your parents tell you if your punishment has been lifted?” Lily asked.

Stella shook her head. “Not yet. They probably wanted to see how I’d behave with you tonight first before deciding anything.”

“Would giving me an orgasm be considered bad behaviour or good?” Lily asked, feigning seriousness.

Stella giggled. “I think you would give my parents a heart attack.”

“I think your dad knows, though.”

Stella lifted her head. “What do you mean?”

Lily turned on her side again to face Stella. “When he was driving me home, he told me he thinks there’s more to our relationship than we let on and he’ll only mention it once we’re ready to talk about it.”

She threaded her fingers through Stella’s and admired how their hands fit together.

Stella smiled. “Draco Malfoy,” she drawled. “Who would have thought?”

Lily dropped a kiss on Stella’s smiling lips. Half-heartedly, Stella pushed her off and sat up. “We really need to go.”

She slipped off the bed and looked for her clothes. Lily watched as she put on her underwear and put her dress back on. “How bad is my hair?” she asked walking over to the mirror on the closet door. “Fuck,” she said, when she saw the rat’s nest that Lily had reduced her hair too. She grabbed her wand off the dresser and cast a spell to clean herself up. With a flash of magic, Stella was back to looking flawless and Lily wondered if maybe she had just imagined them having sex.

Stella picked up Lily’s dress and underwear and threw it towards her. “Come on, Potter. Or do I have to drag you out of bed?”

“I wouldn’t mind a bit of dragging,” Lily teased, but she was already putting on her bra and underwear. She jumped off the bed and put her dress on again. With a glance in the mirror, she saw that she looked just as thoroughly fucked as Stella had. “Can you do that spell on me too?” she asked. With a wave of Stella’s wand, Lily looked presentable again.

Stella was waiting by the door and Lily pushed her up against it, kissing her. Their tongues slowly slid against each other, both of them savouring the kiss. “Okay,” she said, pulling back. “Let’s go attend a party.”

***

Everyone was in high spirits by the time Lily and Stella made their way back to the tent. People were eating and drinking and the dance floor was already full as music blared loudly into the night. Hermione was sitting at one of the tables talking to Bill and Fleur. When she spotted Stella and Lily, she immediately made a beeline for them.

“Where have you been?” she asked. “You missed the speeches.”

Lily started to open her mouth, but Stella was faster. “Mum, I asked Lily if we could talk so that we could sort everything out,” Stella said in her sweet, angelic, adult voice. “I felt awful about everything and so did Lily, so we have agreed to be friends. We’re going to try our best to get along. I’m sorry, I didn’t realise we were gone for so long.”

Lily was impressed. Stella could lie with such ease you would swear butter couldn’t melt in her mouth.

Hermione surveyed her daughter warily and then turned to Lily. “Is she telling the truth?”

“Yes,” Lily nodded.

“Is she blackmailing you?” Hermione asked, deadly serious.

Lily frowned. “What? Why do you think that?”

Hermione analysed Lily’s confused expression, before perking up and smiling. “Well, girls, I for one am thrilled that you have made up with each other. You used to be so close.”

“We’re closer than ever now, Mum,” Stella said, the hidden meaning behind her words lost on her mother.

“I’ll leave you alone, but remember you’re still on probation,” Hermione wagged a finger at Stella.

“Yes, yes,” Stella answered as she pulled Lily away. She guided them to the dance floor where James and some of the cousins were dancing as a group. Stella grabbed Scorpius and forced him to start dancing with her. Lily stood awkwardly for a moment until Stella tugged her hand and brought her into the group. It was weird to dance with Stella without really dancing with her, but at least it was better than nothing.

***

After midnight, the party started winding down and most of the guests went home. There were still a few stragglers; James and Harry Longbottom seemed determined to party until dawn. The Malfoys, Potters, Longbottoms, Lovegoods and assorted Weasleys still filled a few tables, reminiscing about their golden years at Hogwarts.

Stella and Lily were on the dancefloor, competing to see who could dance the silliest. This was one area in which Lily won hands-down. Stella giggled and clapped her hands as Lily contorted her body into stranger and stranger poses. When the song changed to something softer, Stella held out her hand and drew Lily in close. Lily was too tired to worry about how they looked and rested her head on Stella’s shoulder, her arms loosely circling her waist. Stella’s arms were clasped gently behind Lily’s head. They swayed to the music, not speaking, for the rest of the song.

Draco looked over his wife’s shoulder to the dancefloor and watched his daughter dance with Lily. It sent a pang to his heart to see his daughter so grown up, so happy, but also so close to pain. He wished the world were an easier, more understanding place, but he knew better than anyone how prejudice festered and consumed families. Watching Stella and Lily dance, he vowed to do everything he could to help make the transition easier for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcome. You can find me on [tumblr](https://richardayoadeshair.tumblr.com/).


	8. That Summertime Sadness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I can't believe we're halfway through the story already. Thank you for the comments and kudos. I hope you enjoy the new chapter!

In honour of Stella’s good behaviour before and during the party, as well as a private, impassioned plea by her father to his wife to exact leniency, Stella was granted clemency for the bicycle incident. She was allowed to move freely and do whatever she liked.

Lily received the news two days after the engagement party, when a black owl flew in through the kitchen window while she was having breakfast and delivered her a letter from Stella. From her impersonal cheeriness, it was clear that Stella had written the letter fully expecting that someone besides Lily might read it. She wrote how happy she was to finally be able to leave the house again. Their conversation at the party had really got her thinking and she had come to the conclusion that they should spend more time together. As a result, she was writing to invite Lily to come swimming. Albus, James and whichever other cousins wanted to were welcome to join as well. There would be no drinking and Hermione would be supervising the affair.

Lily was impressed. Stella really did waste no time. The prospect of having her brothers and cousins there didn’t thrill Lily, but at least she would get to see Stella. After breakfast, she went looking for mother and handed her the letter. Ginny read it with one eyebrow raised, but when she was finished she asked, “Do you want to go?”

Lily shrugged. “We did make a deal to try to be nicer to each other, so I guess I don’t mind. Plus, I’m a bit bored of the Burrow. It’d be nice to go swimming.”

“Alright,” Ginny relented. “We’ll talk it over with everyone at lunch and then you can write back organising the time. If a lot of you are going, I might even ask Hermione if I should come with to help her.”

“Okay. Thanks, Mum,” Lily said, snatching back the letter. She hoped her mother didn’t notice how eagerly she ran back into the house.

For the next few days, Lily and Stella competed to see who could write the most impersonal letter organising the minutiae of the visit to Malfoy Manor, but lacing each sentence with subtext that only they would understand. Stella would write, “It’s been so boiling at night, I can’t sleep. I wear barely anything and fan myself all over, but nothing helps. Any advice?”

Lily nearly choked on her cereal after reading that one. She wrote back, “What helps me when I feel like that is taking a long, cold shower. It gets rid of all the excess body heat immediately.”

“Thank you for the advice,” Stella wrote back. “I’ll think of you when I take one.”

Tou-frickin’-ché.

***

In the end, James declined the invitation, claiming that he and Harry Longbottom had been planning some epic “lads weekend trip to Paris” for months and didn’t feel like spending time with his siblings. Some of the Wealseys were also involved, but Lily didn’t really care so she didn’t press. Albus, unsurprisingly, was gagging to see Scorpius.

The following Saturday, after a stern lecture by their father, Lily and Scorpius Floo’d to Malfoy Manor. Unlike last time, Lily’s arrival was less of a whirlwind and she was greeted by Hermione, rather than Stella.

“Hello, Lily,” Hermione greeted, pulling her in for a hug. “Oh, Albus, have you gotten even taller?”

Albus smiled at the joke. “Hi, Aunt Hermione.”

“Just Hermione, Al. No need for the aunt.”

Hermione and Draco like to leverage the fact that they weren’t technically related to anyone to avoid being called aunt and uncle. Hermione claimed it made her feel too old.

“So,” Lily started, trying to be as casual as possible. “Where are Stella and Scorpius?”

“Scorpius is playing in his room and Stella’s taking a shower. Albus you can run along and Lily you can wait down here or Stella said you can wait for her in her room.”

Lily didn’t answer immediately, pretending to consider. “I’ll go wait in her room. I’ll drop Albus off along the way. Thanks Hermione.”

“Be good,” Hermione called after them. “I’ll be in my study if you need anything.”

After greeting Scorpius and depositing Albus, Lily sped to Stella’s room. She could hear the water running from the en-suite bathroom. Lily kicked off her shoes and made her way to door. “Yes?” Stella answered, when she knocked.

“Can I come in?” Lily asked.

“Why do you think I’m in the shower, you idiot?”

Lily grinned. She let herself in.

Stella’s bathroom was a dark emerald colour, with old-fashioned white sinks and an antique looking clawfoot bathtub seemingly fitted with a showerhead. A white shower curtain hid Stella from view.

Lily threw off her T-shirt and shorts as she asked, “Is the water cold or hot?”

“Freezing,” Stella drawled.

Drawing back the curtain slightly, Lily climbed into the shower. Stella’s back was turned to her, her head facing the stream of water. Lily wrapped her arms around Stella from behind and pulled her close. She shivered. “This water is fucking freezing, Malfoy.”

Stella laughed. “Just following the doctor’s orders, Potter. Getting rid of excess heat.” This last sentence she whispered in Lily’s ear, turning her head to reach.

Lily kissed Stella’s neck as she turned her around to face her. Stella took her face in her hands and took her mouth in hers. The cold water was forgotten as they created their own heat, rediscovering the bodies that they had only begun to explore the week before.

When they were both satisfied, they got out and dried off. Wearing only her towel, Stella walked into her bedroom. Lily got dressed quickly and followed her. She flopped down on Stella’s bed, watching her pick out her outfit. “Didn’t your mum wonder why you got into the shower just when we were supposed to arrive?”

“I told her I’d lost track of time.”

“And the reason for a shower just before you’re supposed to go swimming?”

“I’ve been taking a _lot_ of showers, so it wasn’t weird.”

Lily grinned, rather pleased with herself.

“Who says it was because of you?” Stella asked mockingly, seeing Lily’s expression.

Lily shrugged. “The evidence seems to point that way,” she answered, half-serious.

Stella smiled, pulling a large T-shirt over her bikini.

“I wouldn’t know what you mean,” she said, feigning innocence.

She hopped onto the bed and straddled Lily as she lay on the bed. She leaned down and Lily arched her back to meet her lips. They kissed languidly, Lily enjoying running her hands across Stella’s bare thighs.

“Stella!” Hermione called from down the hallway.

Stella jumped off Lily as though she’d been burned and Lily sat up just as fast.

Hermione opened the door to Stella’s room. “What are you two doing up here? The boys are already in the pool.”

Stella toyed with her hair, pulling it in a high bun to hide the fact that her hands were shaking. “I was just finishing getting dressed. I showed Lily my bikinis in case she wanted to borrow one.”

“Okay. Would you like some snacks by the pool?”

“That would be nice, thank you,” Lily said, finding her voice.

“Can we have some Muggle snacks, please?”

Hermione smiled at her daughter. “Yes, yes. Remind me to kill your grandfather for giving you so many sweets as a child.”

“Thank you, Mommy,” Stella replied in a sickly-sweet tone.

When Hermione closed the door behind her, Stella collapsed dramatically onto the floor, clutching her chest. “Fuck, I nearly had a heart attack. I thought she was in the room when she said my name.”

Lily fell back onto the bed.

“That was too close.”

***

Lily and Stella made their way down to the pool where Albus and Scorpius were already splashing each other with seemingly all the water of the pool with each splash. Lily hadn’t actually come over to swim in years and it was strange to now be here with Stella as her girlfriend. Well, covert girlfriend. It wasn’t like they were going to start making out in the pool in full view of Hermione any time soon.

Stella threw her towel on a pool chair and pulled off her T-shirt. In an elegant line, she dived into the pool. Lily watched her for a while before taking off her clothes and jumping in, deliberately splashing Stella.

“Hey!” Stella yelled. Lily laughed and Stella grabbed Lily’s head to push it under water. In retaliation, Lily tickled Stella’s stomach until she submitted. Their struggles slowed and they treaded water, their arms still wrapped around each other’s bodies. Stella bit her lower lip and Lily had to use every last ounce of her self-control not to jump Stella in front of their little brothers. She pulled away from Stella and swam to the other side so that she wouldn’t be tempted to run her hands all over Stella’s body. Stella looked disappointed, but she made no move to follow Lily.

Luckily Albus and Scorpius provided an easy distraction as their splashing war drifted towards the side of the pool where the girls were swimming. Lily and Stella joined in and soon it was a full-on war between the Potters and the Malfoys.

“Merlin,” Draco exclaimed, standing by the side of the pool watching them. “There’ll be no water left if you keep going like this.”

They stopped briefly to look at Draco, but in a flash, Stella swam towards him and splashed him with an impressive wave. He jumped backwards, scowling. “Stella! These shoes are leather.”

Stella grinned, wickedly. “They’re a casualty of war. Don’t come so close to the battlefield if you don’t want to get hurt. Scorpius, back on the attack!”

The splashing started again with a renewed fury. “All this chlorine can’t be good for my roses,” Draco muttered, casting a spell to dry his shoes.

***

Eventually tiring of their relentless splashing, Scorpius and Albus ran inside so they could play on Scorpius’ X-box. Whatever that was.

Lily was lying on her stomach on one of the deck chairs and Stella lay on her back on the one next to her, her arm shielding her eyes from the sun.

“Is this all you do during the summer?” Lily asked, cracking open an eyelid to look at Stella.

Stella shrugged lazily. “Pretty much. I usually hang out with Poppy as well, but she has abandoned me this summer. Now I’ll swim for most of the day or practice Quidditch and then just go watch TV.”

Lily perked up. “You have a TV?”

Stella lifted her arm off her eyes and turned her head to look at Lily. “Of course. Through years of careful negotiation, I have managed to convince my parents to amass a large number of Muggle appliances.” She tilted back her head and covered her eyes again. “We have almost all the things a normal Muggle family would have. Except we’re only allowed to use them in the playroom. My father forbids all the Muggle technology to be in the rest of the house except for my cellphone and computer.”

“Have your parents noticed that your phone is missing?”

“No, but you did bring it, right?” Stella shifted onto her elbow.

“Yes, it’s in my bag. Are we going to go back to only writing letters?”

“Nope.” She sat up and pulled her T-shirt over her head. “Come, I’ll show you.”

Lily reluctantly left her comfortable spot in the sun and put on her shorts. She was too hot to put on her shirt.

Stella walked through the cool house and back up to her room. She rummaged around her desk looking for something. “Here you go,” she said when she found what she was looking for. Stella handed Lily an old, beat-up phone. “I know it looks bad, but it still works. You only need it for calls, so I figured it would work. I’m sorry, I kind of miss my phone.”

Lily couldn’t help the smile that was spreading across her features. “You’re giving me a phone?”

“Yes,” Stella replied, uncertainly.

“To keep?”

“Yes.”

Lily hugged her. “This is so cool. Can you teach me how to write notes with it?”

Stella pulled away. “You mean texts?”

“Yeah, whatever those little messages are called.”

Stella smiled. “Okay, if you want to. Why are you so happy?”

Lily shrugged. “It’s the first thing you’ve ever given me. It feels special.”

Stella rolled her eyes. “Geez, Lily, we really need to work on your expectations. They are too low.”

“Stella!” Hermione called. “Dinner!”

Stella sighed. “I never realised what impeccable timing my mother has to ruin a moment.”

***

And so the rest of the summer passed. Stella and Lily would invent reasons to visit each other and steal moments together when no-one was looking. At night, they would call each other and just talk; during the day Lily annoyed Stella by sending her far too many text messages. Stella was thrilled when Lily ran out of credit on the phone and told her so the night when she called and Lily started yelling about how her stupid, useless, old phone must be broken. Ignoring Lily’s pleading, Stella refused to explain how to recharge the phone.

In the blink of an eye, their summer was drawing to a close. Victoire and Teddy’s wedding had come and gone in a shower of taffeta and furious snogging behind the Burrow’s Quidditch Pitch, as well as Harry’s birthday in July.

Now that they were on the verge of going back to Hogwarts, Lily didn’t know what to expect. Yes, they would be able to see each other every day, but they would still be sneaking around. Plus, the shared dormitories that awaited them, was going to make hooking up even harder.

“Lily, what’s wrong?” her father asked.

Lily looked up. Oops. She’d been staring off into space during dinner. They were back at Grimmauld Place so that Lily and Albus could pack to go back to Hogwarts. Her parents and brothers were looking at her expectantly.

“Sorry, I’m just tired,” she replied.

“Are you looking forward to going back to school?”

Lily shrugged. “I’m kind of sad that summer’s over.”

“I was always dying to go back to Hogwarts when I was your age,” Harry said, going back to eating.

Lily thought back to the conversation she’d had with Stella when they went shopping. “Dad? Can I ask you something?”

“Of course?”

“Why don’t you talk about your childhood? You never talk about the Muggle world either.”

Harry’s expression darkened and it was like a veil had been drawn across his eyes. “What has brought this up?”

Lily picked at her food. “I’ve just been wondering about it. Stella knows so much about the Muggle world and it’s weird, because I technically also have a parent that grew up with Muggles.” Lily didn’t know how to explain to her father that part of the reason she didn’t know how to tell him she was gay, was because she didn’t always feel like she knew him. That really wasn’t the type of bombshell you dropped over a plate of pasta.

“I think the difference there is that Hermione was raised by people who loved her which wasn’t the case with me,” Harry answered, a trace of anger in his voice. “You can’t be jealous of Stella, because of that.”

“Why can’t I?” Lily bristled. “Stella talks to her parents about everything. Can’t I be jealous of that?”

“Lily,” Ginny warned, “this isn’t really the time.”

“Why not? He asked me about going to Hogwarts and then shared something about his past. Why can’t I know more?”

Harry slammed a hand down on the table. “Enough. We’re not talking about this.”

Harry stood up and walked away. Ginny sighed and said, “I’ll be right back.

Albus grabbed Lily’s hand and she squeezed it. James was staring at his plate. “For the record, I wouldn’t mind Dad talking about that stuff more too.”

“You would?” Lily couldn’t believe it.

James shrugged. “Yeah. I’ve seen Uncle George cry talking about Uncle Fred over the breakfast table; Dad literally never mentions anything. When I was thirteen, some older git at school asked me about Dobby and I had no idea who he was talking about.”

“Draco always tells us stories from his childhood when we help him in the garden. Even though you can tell it makes him sad,” Albus added.

“I think Hermions forces him to talk about his feelings,” Lily told them, thinking of what Stella has told her about her parents’ relationship. “I don’t think our parents think talking about it will help. Case and point.”

“Maybe not at dinner, though, I’ll give Dad that.”

Lily sighed. “Well, I’m off to Hogwarts tomorrow so they can go back to living in denial all they want.”

“Be gentle with them, Lily,” James said in a rare big brother tone that he only used when he truly meant what he was saying. “We can’t even begin to understand what they’ve been through.”

“I’d like to understand. But they need to talk to me.”

James shrugged. “You can be a bit full-on.”

Before Lily could say anything, Ginny walked back in and sat down. “Your dad’s gone to lie down for a bit,” she said simply, as though they were discussing the weather.

Lily put down her fork, completely losing her appetite.

***

Since it was the night before returning to school, Lily and Stella had agreed to not talk over the phone so that Lily could spend the time with her family.

Unfortunately, Lily’s less than stellar line of questioning over dinner had brought the evening to an abrupt end. Albus disappeared into his room as soon as the table was cleared and James made some excuse about going for a walk. Lily slinked up to her bedroom, flopping down on her bed. Her trunk was already packed, filled with her school supplies and clothes. Without Stella’s call to look forward to, Lily felt absolutely miserable.

With nothing else to do, she changed into her pyjamas and climbed into bed. She wasn’t tired enough to fall asleep, so she just stared up at her ceiling until a soft knock drew her attention. “Yes?” she called, sitting up against her pillows. Her dad popped his head round the door.

“Can I come in?” he asked.

“Yes.”

Harry walked inside, looking a bit sheepish. He looked at her trunk and largely empty room. “All set for going back?”

“Yes.” Lily didn’t really feel like having more polite small talk with her father.

Harry seemed to sense this and came towards her bed. “Mind if I sit down?”

“Go ahead,” she said, shifting a bit to the side to make room for him. Harry sat down a bit gingerly, not wanting to take up too much space. He used to come sit on the edge of her bed like this and read her stories when she was younger. She realised that she actually missed those moments, when she had her father all to herself.

Harry ran his hands over her bedspread, distractedly. Lily waited for him to speak.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” he said finally.

Lily stayed quiet.

“I overreacted a little bit,” he continued.

Lily bit her lip, not wanting to retort that it was more than a little bit.

“I’m not good at talking about all this, you know. For the first eleven years I had no-one to talk to and then when I was eighteen the home that I had started to build in the Wizarding World was completely blown up. I’ve,” he stopped, his voice shaking slightly. “I’ve been trying to build a home for us. One that is safe and strong. I don’t- I don’t like reliving what happened before.”

“Dad,” Lily said softly, taking his hand in hers, “being vulnerable doesn’t mean our family isn’t strong or safe. We’ll actually be stronger if we deal with these things.”

Harry laughed without humour. “You sound like Hermione.”

“Well, I’ve spent the whole summer with her mini lookalike, so I think they’ve rubbed off on me.”

Harry smiled. “I’m glad you two are friends. You need a good friend like that, Lily.”

Friend. Before this summer, Lily hadn’t realised how much she hated that word.

Harry kissed her on the forehead. “I’m going to try to be better. I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Harry stood up and left.

Lily lay her head back on the pillow, continuing her contemplation of her ceiling. She wondered if she had been raised by different people, if coming out would be easier. How was it possible to want so desperately for the people around you to truly see you, yet be too terrified to actually let them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcome. You can find me on [tumblr](https://richardayoadeshair.tumblr.com/).


	9. Back to School Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! We gotta go back, back, back to school again. Yay! (Yes I am referencing a Grease 2 song because I love it). Please enjoy all the hijinks, because the next few chapters are going to become a bit angsty.

On the 1st of September, Grimmauld Place was a madhouse as Ginny realised before breakfast that Albus had barely packed and they were going to be late for the train. To make matters worse, James had also had the bright idea to move into the flat he was going to share with Harry Longbottom the same week that Lily and Albus were going back to Hogwarts, so his boxes and assorted Quidditch gear were littering the entrance hall, adding to the general sense of chaos. Lily sat at the top of the staircase watching her mother whizz around trying to collect all of Albus’ belongings and James yelling at Albus as he tripped over James’ things.

“Careful with that, Albus,” James warned. “I love that broom more than I love you.”

“Ha ha,” Albus drawled, reminding Lily of another Slytherin she knew. “If you didn’t leave your things lying around all over the place like a savage, it would be much easier to get around.”

“Albus, do not call your brother a savage,” Ginny reprimanded him as she came back into the entrance hall carrying Albus’ owl’s cage, “when you are the one who casually forgot to pack!”

Albus shrugged and said, “I was busy with other things. I got my dates confused.”

Ginny sighed. “Your father’s birthday is conveniently situated a month before you need to go back, you’d think that would help.”

“That’s a whole month for me to forget again,” Albus replied with a frown at his mother’s seemingly faulty logic.

Ginny noticed Lily sitting on the top of the stairs. “You know you could help us instead of just sitting there.”

“No, thank you,” Lily replied. “I’m not getting involved in that mess down there. It looks like a health hazard.”

“Godric help me,” Ginny lifted her eyes in search of help from above.

Harry walked in through the front door, carrying a bag of pastries. “I have successfully procured our treats. Are we all ready to go?”

His eyes landed on the mountain of boxes and trunks and animals that were scattered around the entrance hall. “Did I miss something?”

***

By the time the Potters finally made it to King’s Cross Station, Lily was more than relieved to be going back to school. When she spotted Stella, she immediately made her way over. They quickly said goodbye to their parents and made their way onto the train. Stella led them into a compartment where a girl was sitting, her face obscured by a copy of the Daily Prophet, with only her very expensive-looking black leather mini-skirt and high-heeled designer shoes visible beneath it. When Stella slid the door open, the girl folded the top half of the paper forward, so that she could look at them over the top of it.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” Poppy Longbottom drawled. Lily felt a shiver run down her spine. Whereas Harry Longbottom had inherited Neville’s easy smile and general Gryffindor chuminess, Poppy was all Pansy Parkinson. Her dark, wavy hair was flipped over to one side in a way that made her look like a sultry old Hollywood film star who had just rolled out of bed after engaging in a very satisfying tumble in the sheets. Her make-up was pristine, as always, with a dark, smoky eye and intense red lips. The only thing that belied her father’s genetic contribution, were her light, hazel eyes. Which were now narrowed, scrutinising the two girls in the doorway.

Stella was seemingly unperturbed and rushed forward to greet her best friend. Adorably, but surprisingly gracelessly, Stella squealed as she ran forward and threw her arms around Poppy, crushing the Daily Prophet between her and her now very displeased friend. “You’re one to talk,” Stella said in mock-fury, “I’m not the one who chose to leave her best friend and spend my entire summer in Paris.”

Poppy looked visibly uncomfortable at the level of affection that she was receiving. Grimacing slightly, she tried to lift off Stella’s arm, but Stella only squeezed her tighter. “No, this is your punishment for abandoning me.”

Poppy sighed, seemingly resigned to her fate and gave Stella’s arm a few light taps. “There, there, I missed you too,” she said a bit reluctantly. Poppy turned her gaze to Lily. “You going to stand there all day or are you going to take a seat?”

Lily was shocked back to reality. “Umm, yes if that’s fine with you? Can I?” Whereas Stella used to infuriate her, Poppy had the ability to turn her completely incoherent with a single glance. She was never truly mean or cruel, just very, very intimidating.

“Sit down, Potter,” Stella laughed and released Poppy. Lily sat down on the seat across from the two friends. Poppy was still scrutinising her.

“You seem to be over your defeat.” she observed.

“What?” Lily didn’t know what she was talking about.

Poppy raised a single perfectly shaped eyebrow at her. “Last time I spoke to you, you were accusing my star seeker of having distracted you in order to win the Quidditch Cup.”

Lily felt a blush coming on. “Yes, well, umm,” she stammered, before Stella saved her.

“That’s all water under the bridge now, Poppy. We hashed it out over the summer and she believes me that I was genuinely only complimenting her hair.”

Poppy seemed mollified. “Good, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to take it easy on you on the Quidditch pitch. We’re planning on repeating our win from last year.”

Stella groaned. “Can we not talk Quidditch yet, please?” She grabbed Poppy’s hands and jumped up and down in her seat. “Tell me about the dresses.”

Lily smiled as she watched Stella and Poppy catch up. Whereas the friendship between Ginny and Hermione had forced Lily and Stella to spend their childhoods together, the friendship between Draco and Pansy Parkinson merely presented both girls with the opportunity to find their platonic soulmates. Stella and Poppy were the type of best friends that Lily supposed Ginny and Hermione had always hoped Lily and Stella would become. They were inseparable, interested in all the same things and could understand each other in ways unique only to them.

Not for the first time, did Lily wonder how many Gryffindor and Slytherin couples had actually existed throughout history. Even though Neville and Pansy were both Purebloods and part of the sacred twenty-eight, from what Lily understood of their time at Hogwarts, Neville was clumsy and unpopular and Pansy was a bit of a bully. How they had ended up deliriously happy together, was still a question that her parents would bring up whenever they had had too much to drink.

Listening to the girls talk about Paris and fashion and how Harry and James had completely trashed Pansy’s Parisian flat when they were there over the summer, Lily felt a bit left out of the conversation. She supposed it was an unavoidable part of being with Stella now; she had to share her. The summer had been a sweet reprieve since Poppy was away, but going back to Hogwarts meant that Stella would be back around her Slytherin friends and they would be sleeping on two, very opposite ends of the castle.

Lily stared out the window at the falling rain and was starting to feel rather sorry for herself, when Poppy excused herself to go change into her uniform. Stella told her that she would come a bit later. As soon as Poppy was gone, Stella stood up and came to sit next to Lily, lacing their fingers together.

“Have I told you I loved you today?” she asked Lily.

“Yes,” Lily replied, wondering where Stella was going with this. “You said it this morning when we talked over the phone.”

Stella sighed. “That’s a shame.”

Lily smiled and put her head on Stella’s shoulder.

“You could always say it again.”

Stella shook her head. “No, once a day is enough. We don’t want you getting a big head.” She stroked the back of Lily’s hand with her thumb.

Lily’s smile grew bigger and she turned her head back to look out the window at the Scottish countryside. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to share Stella. It would make it that much better each time that she would come back to her.

***

Life back at Hogwarts was weird. Everything felt the same, but was completely different at the same time. Lily would never admit it, but as she sat down to dinner the first night after having said goodbye to Poppy and Stella, she looked around the table and realised that it felt empty without James and Harry talking too loudly and cracking jokes. The previous few years, most of Lily’s spare time had been taken up with Quidditch practice or studying, so any free time she had would usually be spent tagging along with James and his friends. It was only now that she realised it probably would have been a good idea to branch out in the friendship department.

Maurae Wood slid into the seat next to her. “You alright, Lily? Have a good summer?”

“I did, thanks. Yours?”

Maurae shrugged. “Pretty boring. My dad decided we were going to spend half of it on a riverboat so I had nothing to do besides coming up with Quidditch plays. I will avenge the legacy of your bother. We’re going to crush Slytherin this year.”

Lily grinned. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

Liam Finnegan leaned his head in and asked Lily if James had really set Harry Longbottom’s mother’s flat on fire. Lily laughed and recounted the story as she had heard it from Poppy on the train.

Even though Lily still missed James, at least the rest of the Quidditch team could keep her company.

To her surprise, as the weeks went by, she found a new friend in Poppy Longbottom. Poppy hadn’t seemed too bothered by Lily’s presence on the train, but as the days passed and Lily didn’t go away, Poppy gradually seemed to become annoyed with her.

“I’m her best friend,” Poppy told her one day, when they were sitting on the grass outside, soaking up the late autumn sun. Stella had just stood up to go to the bathroom, when Poppy had lowered her dark sunglasses and glared at Lily.

“I know,” Lily said. Poppy’s stare was becoming very uncomfortable. “Is Stella not allowed to have other friends?”

“She is. But she deserves good friends who are loyal.”

“Are you implying she’s only allowed to be friends with Slytherins?” Lily scoffed.

“Lily,” Poppy said in a deathly quiet voice. “You’ve spent many years badmouthing her and telling everyone how annoying she is. I just want to make sure this new friend thing is for real.”

“It is,” Lily said, quickly. “I promise you, I care about Stella and I would never intentionally hurt her. I- I was wrong in the past, I know that, but I really care about her now. I promise you, Poppy.”

Poppy’s stare became thoughtful, studying Lily. “I’m feeling tempted to believe you, Potter. But that doesn’t mean I won’t spell you bald if you ever cross her. Or try to replace me.”

“You’re a good friend, Poppy.”

“Don’t patronise me,” Poppy replied snidely, pushing her glasses up her nose and laying back down on the ground.

Seemingly satisfied by her interrogation, Poppy never broached the subject again and Lily became their unofficial third wheel. The more time she spent around her, the more Lily came to appreciate the dark-haired Slytherin’s sly humour and gruff affection. It was clear that Poppy was fiercely loyal to Stella and Lily respected anyone who cared that much about her.

Because Lily wasn’t lying when she told Poppy she cared about Stella. She did. More than she ever thought it was possible to care about someone. Lily had always been obsessed with Stella, studying her progress in class and on the Quidditch pitch with a compulsive need, but now that she understood the source of that obsession, she wanted to know everything about her simply because she loved her. Stella was still at the centre of her Hogwarts universe; the only thing that had changed was her motivation.

Unfortunately, their living arrangements were still very much the same. Current-Lily was rather annoyed with Past-Lily for all the times she had complained about being forced to share a room with Stella. As it turned out, having a girlfriend in a different house to you, your secret-girlfriend no less, was really not all that convenient. Besides the fact that Stella and Poppy seemed to be surgically attached to each other, Stella and Lily were both dedicated students and fiercely competitive Quidditch players, which left little time for fraternising.

After the first month of barely any alone time with Stella, Lily was ready to set the school on fire. Not literally, but something of that magnitude felt tempting. As per usual, Stella didn’t seem too bothered by the situation, but after Quidditch practice one day, Lily was dragged behind the equipment shed rather unceremoniously.

“I can’t take it anymore,” a wild Stella grumbled as she pressed her lips against Lily’s.

“Stella, I am sweaty and gross from Quidditch,” Lily complained, but not too much, because she was rather enjoying what Stella was doing to her neck.

“You mean hot and sweaty,” Stella countered, nipping Lily’s lower jaw.

“Is Quidditch a turn-on for you?”

Stella lifted her head and met Lily’s eyes. “Is it not for you?”

Lily shrugged sheepishly. “We’ve established that you breathing pretty much turns me on.”

Stella grinned. “Good.”

They continued making out and maybe doing some things that you probably shouldn’t do behind a shed where any random person could find you. In time, it became their go-to spot for secret rendez-vous.

Not to be outdone by his little sister, Lily was surprised to find out that James seemed to have a secret of his own. One Saturday in mid-November, during a Slytherin/Ravenclaw Quidditch match that Lily attended in order to watch Stella fly by in her Quidditch uniform, she was surprised to find herself squashed between James and Harry Longbottom. No-one seemed to take much notice of the presence of two former Gryffindor students in the stands reserved for pupils instead of the parents’ and teachers’ one.

“Remind me again, why are the two of you spending your Saturday afternoon watching a game between two houses that neither of you belonged to?” Lily asked, turning her head from the one boy to the other.

“My sister is the captain of one of the teams, you know,” Harry replied in a “no-duh” voice. “Why are _you_ here?”

“Your sister being captain never prevented you from loudly cheering against her team, all throughout your school career,” Lily pointed out with a fake smile, ignoring his question.

James shrugged next to her. “We were just hanging out at Harry’s and then his parents said they were going to watch the match. We didn’t have anything better to do.”

“Right,” Lily drawled. “Two single, nineteen year old boys don’t have anything better to do on a Saturday afternoon.”

Harry’s reply was drowned out when James loudly started cheering after Poppy scored a goal for Slytherin.

“James, you aren’t seriously cheering for Slytherin, right now?”

He shrugged again. “What? My best friend’s sister is on the team and then Stella’s like family. Why can’t I cheer for them?”

“Your _sister_ is on the team that is their main rivals in the championship.”

James waved her off and went back to watching the match intensely.

When Poppy received a foul, he jumped up and joined in with the loud groans and complaints of the Slytherins around them.

Weird.

***

Lily waited for Stella at the bottom of the stands with Harry after the game.

“Where’s James run off to?” she asked, realising that they had lost her brother as they were coming down.

Harry smirked. “You really haven’t noticed, have you?”

“Noticed what?” Lily asked, her brow furrowing.

Harry smiled and shook his head. “You really are oblivious, aren’t you?”

“Please get to the point, Longbottom.”

He raised his hands defensively. “Alright, I’ll help you out. Why do you think your brother tagged along with me to visit my parents? Why did he jump at the chance to come watch a match that, as you have pointed out, we have very little personal stake in? Why is he now sneaking off towards the Slytherin locker room?”

Lily’s brain was struggling to catch up. What possible reason could… Oh, oh. _Oh_. What?

“Poppy?” she nearly shrieked. “And James?”

Harry laughed. “Apparently he likes sleeping with the enemy.”

“When? And how?” she asked, still slack-jawed.

Harry shrugged. “I think it happened round about the time Poppy became captain of the team. It was as if being rival captains was too much for them. Poppy has always had a bit of a crush on James, but I think he only really noticed her when she started beating him on the Quidditch pitch.”

“Poppy?” Lily asked again, as if the answer would magically change the more she thought about it.

“Oi, she’s still my sister,” Harry warned. “So think carefully about what you say next.”

“No, it’s just,” Lily struggled to find the words. “They’re just so different. I never would have imagined them together.”

Harry shrugged. “As loathe as I am to admit it, they’re kind of good together. She makes him less of an arrogant wanker and he forces her to care about someone who isn’t Poppy Longbottom.”

Lily giggled at his summary of their relationship. “Are they ever going to tell anyone?”

Harry sighed, as if the topic exhausted him. “It depends on who manages to stick their stubborn head out of their ass long enough to actually do something about their relationship. I think at this point they’re competing to see who is going to keep from giving in the longest.”

Lily almost felt sorry for James for trying to go up against Poppy Longbottom.

“What are you two giggling about?” Stella asked, appearing beside them.

“I’ll tell you later,” Lily whispered, conspiratorially.

Stella tilted her head slightly, curious. “Did you enjoy the game?” she asked Harry.

“My sister is still an absolute terror on the pitch, which is always lovely to see,” Harry deadpanned.

“She’s actually a bit more relaxed this year,” Stella said. “I think she’s lost some of her competitiveness now that she beat Gryffindor last year.”

Harry chuckled, knowingly. “I cannot imagine why.”

All in all, being back at Hogwarts was strange. But damn, if Lily wasn’t having the time of her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcome. You can find me on [tumblr](https://richardayoadeshair.tumblr.com/).


	10. A Very Merry Christmas Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This title is slightly misleading, as this Christmas will not be a Hallmark movie. Expect a good mix of angst and smut. I love these two parts a great deal and I hope you do too. France is experiencing a heat wave and I am melting, so to anyone else in Europe, I hope thinking of snow will cool you down.

Lily could not believe how quickly time had passed. It felt like yesterday that she had arrived at Hogwarts to start her sixth year. Between homework, Quidditch practice and making time for sneaking around with Stella, Lily barely had time to stop and think about how quickly the days were turning into months. Before she knew it, she was packing to go back home for the Christmas holidays.

Lily wasn’t sure how to feel about going home. She was excited to see her family, of course, but she was also a bit apprehensive. Even though they weren’t openly together, it was easier to be with Stella at school, without their parents present. There was a simple pleasure in seeing her every day, in sitting in the library studying together, in holding hands under the table while they drank Butterbeer with Poppy and their friends. Having her parents around would just remind her of all the details of her life that she was omitting.

Adding to Lily’s apprehension, was the fight that she’d had with Stella the day before. They had been standing by the Black Lake, the freezing weather meaning that they were completely alone, the only students outside. Stella told Lily that she had decided to come out to her parents. Draco, for all intents and purposes, knew that they were together, but Stella couldn’t keep it from Hermione any longer. Lily wasn’t thrilled with the idea and Stella argued that she could tell her parents without going into the details of their relationship.

“So what, you’re just going to say you’re gay without mentioning we’ve been together for the past six months?” Lily asked, incredulously.

“Yes, why not?” Stella retorted. “I want to talk to my parents about this. I’m ready. I know I’m gay, I know I love you and I know I want to share that part of my life with them. I don’t need your permission to come out to my parents.”

“What if they tell my parents?” Lily argued.

“I’ll swear them to secrecy. Or like I said, I’ll leave you out of it.”

“Your dad knows there’s something between us.”

Stella rolled her eyes. “Which proves he can keep a secret. He probably wouldn’t even bring you up unless I did.”

Lily folded her arms across her chest. “Stella, you told me I could take my time. How can you spring this on me, two days before we go home?”

Stella sighed and rubbed her eyes. “Lily, I understand that our families are not the same. I get why you are reluctant to talk about this, but I can only keep this secret for so long. I tell my parents everything. I write my mom if I stub my toe.” Lily was startled to see tears well up in Stella’s eyes. “I feel like you’re the best thing that has ever happened to me and they don’t even know. I’m so happy, but I can’t share it with them.”

With an angry brush of her sleeve, she wiped away the tears that were flowing freely now.

Lily didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t realised that their secretiveness weighed so heavily on Stella. She wasn’t used to seeing Stella cry and she felt awful.

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Lily said, finally.

Stella laughed mirthlessly. “Don’t say anything, Lily. It’s what you do best.” With that, Stella walked away, back towards the school buildings.

When they saw each other later at dinner, Stella acted perfectly normal, but she did not linger afterwards and went straight to the Slytherin common room. They hadn’t really been speaking since.

Lily stopped packing and lay down on her bed, too tired to continue. She didn’t like to accept the fact that she had been unwittingly causing Stella pain all these months that they had been sneaking around. Stella was so easy-going and nothing ever seemed to faze her that it was easy to forget that she could also struggle. Lily should have made more of an effort to take her feelings into consideration.

How was she going to make this up to Stella?

***

The awkward tension between Stella and Lily did not let up once they were on the train back home. Stella opted to share a carriage with her Slytherin friends and Lily helplessly looked for Albus, the only person that she could stand to be around at the moment. Albus and Scorpius didn’t mind Lily’s company and kept playing Wizard’s chess, while Lily propped her head against the window and slept.

At the station, Lily and Stella’s parents were standing together waiting for them. Lily felt uneasy listening to the parents wrap up their conversation while she and Stella just stood there, very clearly not talking. As everyone was saying their goodbyes, Lily grabbed Stella’s hands. “Are we okay?”

Stella smiled. “Of course. I’ll see you at the Christmas party.”

And then she was gone. No promise to call that night or a “I’ll miss you”, just a “see you next week”.

Fuck.

***

Lily spent the days leading up to Christmas in bed, feeling miserable. When her mother asked her what was going on she claimed that she was exhausted from school and just wanted to sleep. James watched her distrustfully each time she wandered downstairs to pick at food.

The day before Christmas Eve, James came into her room. “Alright, what’s going on with you?” he asked, throwing off the dirty clothes that were lying on her bed and sitting down.

“Nothing, I’m just tired.”

“You can spin that bullshit with Mum, but I don’t believe you. Since it’s Christmas, I’ll be nice and play big brother, so tell me what’s wrong.”

Lily sighed. James rarely butted in in other people’s lives, so he must have been pretty worried to approach her so directly.

“I think I messed up with someone I like,” she said vaguely.

“What did you do?” James asked.

Lily shrugged. What had she done really? “I think I put my own feelings before someone else’s,” she answered. “More like, I didn’t even stop to consider their feelings to begin with.”

“So, you were self-absorbed,” James summarised, a bit harshly Lily felt.

“I guess,” she relented.

“You have a tendency to do that.”

Lily sat up and glared at her brother. “No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do,” he reiterated, raising his eyebrows at her. “You always think everything is about you. When Mum and Dad told us they were having another kid, you started crying and asking them why you weren’t enough for them.”

Lily opened her mouth to argue, but she had a rather vivid memory of clutching her mother’s leg and wailing at the news.

“I suppose there is a bit of truth in that,” she said through gritted teeth. “What do you suggest then, oh wise one?”

James grinned. “I’m glad you finally understand my talents. But seriously, you need to show this person that you do take their feelings into consideration. That you aren’t just obsessed with yourself, but also care about them.”

Lily groaned internally. “How am I supposed to do that if the person isn’t even talking to me?”

“Show them. Find a way that shows them how much they mean to you, without words.”

Lily watched her brother carefully as he spoke. He was so serious and mature, that she didn’t quite recognise him. “What happened to my idiot brother who spent all of his pocket money on pranks from Uncle George’s shop?”

“He’s still here, don’t worry,” he laughed. “But I try to be serious when my little sister’s upset.”

“Can I ask you something, James?”

“Go ahead.”

Lily weighed up her options in her mind. This was a rare moment where James wasn’t playing the fool and even though she was upset about Stella, she was also nosy.

“Why did you go to Paris in the summer?”

James’s face remained expressionless as he replied, “Harry’s mum has a flat there. It was convenient.”

“You hate the French,” she pressed. “When we went there when we were kids, you said you’d rather holiday in Azkaban.”

“Are you going to get to the point soon, Lily?”

She shrugged. “You can talk to me, too, you know.”

James’ shoulders drooped, his body sinking deeper into the bed. “I was trying to show someone how much they meant to me without words.”

“Did it work?”

“No, I was too late. You might have more luck.”

“Thanks, James.”

He smiled at her. “Any time, baby sister.”

“Don’t call me that,” Lily snapped.

James jumped off the bed as though she might bite him. “Looks like someone’s feeling better.”

With a final grin, he ran out of her room.

***

How to show Stella that she was important to Lily without words? Her conversation with James played over and over in her mind as she tried to think of what she could do when she saw Stella at Christmas Eve.

Each year, the Malfoys would organise a huge Christmas Eve celebration at the Manor, inviting an eclectic bunch of their friends. Slytherins, Gryffindors and even Hermione’s Muggle parents, all mingled together in the usually sumptuously decorated mansion.

Lily usually dreaded the party, having to dress up and inevitably feel inadequate compared to whatever Stella was wearing. She would spend most of the evening sticking close to her parents and watch from afar as Stella chatted with her parents’ friends. This year, she had thought things would be a bit different, but now she was even more apprehensive than usual. She slipped her hand through her dresses, willing something to magically appear that she wanted to wear to the party. Lily thought of her last shopping trip, the one with Stella to Muggle London. She thought of all the dresses that Stella had chosen for her and how wistfully Stella had looked at Lily’s chest when she had refused to wear a low cut dress. Lily stopped. Could that work? It was a small gesture, but still. If Lily did this, would Stella see it as her trying and forgive her?

“Mum!” Lily yelled, running out of her room. “Do you have a Muggle credit card?”

***

Lily’s heart beat furiously as they walked up the path towards Malfoy Manor. Her father had opted to drive up from London instead of apparating or Flooing in, so they were probably one of the last people to arrive at the party. Music and laughter could be heard peeling from the brightly-lit house.

Scorpius was waiting on the steps outside and he ran towards Albus as soon as he spotted him. “Can you two possibly be more excited to see each other every time?” Lily asked ironically.

Albus grinned. “You’re just jealous that I’m never this happy to see you.”

Lily’s mouth dropped open. That was quite mean.

Scorpius smiled. “Don’t worry, Lily. He used to talk for hours about how he missed you when you first went off to Hogwarts.”

“Thanks, Scorpius. You,” she turned to Albus and mussed his hair, “need to learn some respect.”

The boys laughed and Scorpius led them inside. Like every year, the decorations took Lily’s breath away. Every inch of the place seemed to be covered in silver, from delicate silver branches snaking up the stairwell to shiny silver mistletoe hanging above the doorways. Gentle, soft snow was falling from above and Lily was tempted to stick out her tongue to catch some flakes even though she knew it was just an enchantment.

Narcissa Malfoy stood in the doorway to the ballroom, greeting guests. She was a beautiful older woman, her long, blonde hair growing greyer each year. Draco resembled her greatly and Lily found that Stella’s smile seemed to come from her as well. “Potters!” she called warmly, when she spotted them. “Please come through. We were just wondering what was keeping you.”

Narcissa hugged Harry warmly and kissed Ginny politely on the cheeks. Lily knew what had happened between her father and Narcissa during the war, but while Narcissa always treated him like an old friend, Harry did not seem to acknowledge their history.

As Narcissa asked Lily’s parents about their year, Lily slipped away to find a bathroom. She had been too afraid of her parents’ forbidding her from wearing her outfit the way she wanted to, that she had decided to finish styling it once she was inside the Manor and they couldn’t yell at her without making a scene. The day before, Muggle credit card in hand, Lily had ventured into London, looking for a dress that would impress Stella and instantly make her forgive Lily. In the end, Lily hadn’t found a dress that she liked, but she had stumbled across a section of the shop that sold tailored suits.

A few choice transfiguration spells later, and Lily had tight fitting black trousers and a matching black, silk blazer. To appease her parents, she had left home wearing a white dress shirt, but now in the bathroom at Malfoy Manor, Lily threw off the shirt and buttoned up the blazer. Without the shirt, the lapels dipped low and Lily’s cleavage was very much on display. Lily smiled at her reflection. She was ready to seduce a Malfoy.

***

“Lily, darling,” Narcissa exclaimed, when Lily walked back to the ballroom. Narcissa looked Lily up and down appreciatively. “That is a wonderful outfit. Not enough girls are brave enough to embrace their masculine side.”

“Thank you?” Lily replied, not sure if it was a compliment.

“Oh, you look divine,” Narcissa continued. “Go inside and show yourself off. It _is_ a party after all.”

Lily smiled and allowed Stella’s grandmother to usher her inside.

The ballroom was even more spectacular than the entrance hall. Silver reindeer hopped and grazed in a forest of pine trees across the vast ceiling. Delicate orchestral music accompanied the buzz of conversation and the smell of roasted nuts and cinnamon filled the air.

“What. Are. You. Wearing?” an angry voice hissed near Lily, drawing her attention away from admiring the room.

Stella was standing in front of her, looking beautiful in a flowing silver gown with thin straps. Bright silver powder extended from her eyelids over the tops of her cheeks and the thin silver chain in her curly hair made her look like a beautiful winter fairy princess that had just emerged from a snowflake.

She was staring at Lily, her eyes wide in an expression that Lily had never seen on her before.

“What?” Lily asked, panicking. “Don’t you like it?”

Stella continued staring at her, mouth hanging open.

“Follow me,” Stella said, her voice still laced with seeming anger.

Lily wanted to cry as she followed Stella through the throng of people and out another door at the end of the ballroom. She had been so pleased with her outfit, believing that she had found a compromise in dressing like herself, but also looking attractive to Stella. Now, it seemed as though she had offended Stella somehow and they were even further from making up than they were before.

Stella marched through the hallway, her hair streaming behind her, not even checking to make sure that Lily was still following. She stopped in front of a huge set of doors that Lily recognised as leading to the library. Lily swallowed as she followed Stella inside, convinced that she was about to be yelled at.

Instead, Stella pushed her against the door and stuck her tongue down her throat.

What?

Stella laced her fingers into Lily’s hair, her tongue sliding across Lily’s as though they were fighting. Lily could feel every inch of Stella’s body through the thin material of her dress as Stella pushed their bodies together into the door.

Lily pushed her hands against Stella’s chest, separating their lips. “What the fuck, Stella?” she gasped.

“What the fuck, _me_?” Stella seethed. Her silver irises were a thin band around her dilated black pupils and she looked slightly crazed. “How the fuck could you walk in here wearing that suit and not expect me to jump you?”

Lily’s brain struggled to catch up. “So, you like the suit?”

Stella rolled her eyes. “Of course I fucking like the suit. Can I now proceed to take it off of you, please?” she asked, already undoing the top button of the blazer.

“You may,” Lily replied, smiling.

Once the buttons were undone, Stella drew Lily close, sliding her lips across Lily’s bare torso. Sliding her hands under the blazer and behind Lily’s back, Stella guided Lily towards the table in the middle of the bottom floor of the library. She pushed Lily against the table and started fiddling with the buttons of Lily’s trousers.

Lily struggled to catch her breath as she watched Stella yank off her gold brogues and trousers. Rising up to kiss her again, Stella pushed Lily until she was sitting on the table. Lily put her hands behind Stella’s head and pulled her even closer, not wanting to break their contact yet. Stella’s hands roamed across Lily’s body and carefully slid between Lily’s legs, causing Lily to gasp. Stella used this opportunity to bend down and spread Lily’s legs. Once done, Stella pulled Lily closer until Stella’s tongue found Lily’s center.

Lily stifled a scream. Here she was, sitting on a table in the Malfoy library, wearing nothing but a blazer that was barely covering her chest, whilst Stella leaned in front of her, absolutely ravishing her.

“Oh my god,” she gasped. “Stella, I can’t… oh fuck…”

Lily struggled to brace herself against the table on her elbow, as Stella’s tongue caused her to groan in pleasure. When she couldn’t take it anymore, she felt herself shiver around Stella, collapsing backwards onto the table. Stella joined her on the table and dropped her head on Lily’s chest.

“I’ve always fantasised about having sex in this library,” Stella said, as though the thought had just occurred to her that that was what they were doing.

“Fuck, Stella. One of these days my heart is going to give out because of you,” Lily gasped, still trying to catch her breath.

Stella giggled and rested her chin on Lily’s chest. “Serves you right. What possessed you to wear that tonight?”

“Well, I didn’t think it would cause that sort of reaction?” Lily said, defensively. “I just wanted to do something for you. To show that I do actually listen to you, even if it’s just about something stupid like clothes.”

Stella lifted her head and leaned on her elbow so that she could see Lily better. “I just felt bad about how we left things,” Lily continued, “and I wanted to make it up to you.”

Stella smiled. She ran a finger up and down Lily’s chest, between her breasts. “I am rather flattered,” she said, a bit coyly. “You didn’t have to do this, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the gesture.”

Lily took the hand that Stella had against her chest in her hand. “I also wanted to tell you that you don’t need my permission to tell your parents. You can do whatever you want, but know that you have my full support. I love you, Stella, and I never want you to feel that you have to hide your happiness from your family because of me.”

Stella’s eyes filled with tears. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely,” Lily said, kissing Stella on her forehead. “I’ll do anything for you.”

Lily kissed Stella’s brows, her eyes, the side of her mouth and then lost herself in the soft skin of Stella’s neck. Stella ran her fingers up Lily’s back and pulled her closer. Lily slipped off the thin strap on one of Stella’s shoulders and dragged her tongue across Stella’s skin as she pulled the dress down to reveal one of Stella’s breasts. She took one of the small breasts in her mouth and Stella moaned softly. Lily lowered her hand and pulled up Stella’s dress, bunching it up at the waist. She had just slipped her hand under Stella’s underwear when they heard laughter outside the doors to the library. They both froze and waited to see the doors being thrown open, but the sound of voices soon drifted away and they collapsed in relief.

“Shit, that was close,” Stella whispered. She sat up, fixing her dress. “We should probably quit while we’re ahead, before someone walks in.” Lily continued to kiss Stella’s neck, until Stella pushed her off.

“Get dressed, Potter.”

Lily stuck out her bottom lip petulantly. “Why do you get to undress me, but I don’t get to undress you?” She stuck her legs through her trouser legs more forcefully than necessary.

Stella pulled her dress down and answered, “I would love for you to finish getting me off as well, but I don’t really feel like having my grandfather walk in and finding us half-naked with your hand inside of me.”

Lily imagined Lucius’ face and she sped up. When she was dressed, Stella ran a finger down in-between Lily’s breasts, leaning in close until their lips were only a few centimetres apart. “I don’t know how I am supposed to spend the rest of the night not touching you when you look like that.”

Lily put her arms across Stella’s ass. “If we hide behind a stack, I can get you off quickly and we’ll hear if anybody comes in.”

“Yes, please,” Stella moaned, already pushing Lily towards a dark corner where they wouldn’t be seen.

With Stella’s dress pulled up around her waist, Lily fingered Stella, bracing her hand against the bookshelf. Stella stifled her moans in Lily’s shoulder and bunched the material of Lily’s blazer in her fingers. As she came, she bit into Lily’s shoulder to keep from screaming. Lily didn’t remove her hand immediately and their bodies stayed pressed against each other as they caught their breaths.

“This is definitely better than anything I ever imagined,” Stella breathed.

“It is very Hermione Granger of you to want to have sex in a library,” Lily said, smiling mischievously.

“Fuck you, Potter.”

Lily leaned into Stella’s ear. “You just did, Malfoy.”

Stella laughed and Lily could feel it in her chest. This was what love felt like and she never wanted it to stop.

***

At the door, Stella waved her wand and both of them looked presentable again. As she opened the door, Lily stole a final kiss from Stella, both of them giggling uncontrollably.

As Stella walked backwards out the door, Lily looked over her shoulder to see Draco stopped dead in his tracks, a whiskey glass halfway to his mouth. Stella saw Lily’s expression and spun around. Her spine snapped straight and she stared at her father, waiting for him to say something.

After what felt like an eternity, Draco opened his mouth, just to close it again. He downed his whiskey in one go and then tried again. “I suppose as your father I should probably reprimand you somehow, but I’m pretty sure you were conceived in that library so I’m not one to talk.” With a weary sigh, he added, “Just try not to do it while there’s a party going on.”

Not waiting for an answer, he walked passed them towards his original destination.

Once he was round the corner, Lily breathed a sigh of relief, putting a hand against her chest to feel her beating heart. “That was so mortifying.”

Stella stood stock-still, her mouth gaping like a fish. “Did he just…” she started.

“Your dad plays dirty,” Lily laughed, pulling Stella forward.

***

Lily and Stella managed to act reasonably normal after that and be present for most of the party, except for slipping outside to make out behind a hedge until they thought their tongues would freeze off. She peripherally noticed James trying to talk to Poppy, who only seemed interested in dancing with every male present at the party, but for the rest she only had eyes for Stella. They were still dancing with each other, when Harry came over and told Lily they were leaving.

Stella walked with Lily to the door. “Is it okay if I tell my parents tonight?”

Lily concentrated on keeping her breathing steady. She took Stella’s hand in hers. “Of course. I meant what I said.”

Stella hugged Lily close. “I love you,” she whispered.

“Me too,” Lily whispered, pulling away and catching up to her family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcome. You can find me on [tumblr](https://richardayoadeshair.tumblr.com/).


	11. A Very Merry Christmas Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Time for Part 2. Even famous witches and wizards are not safe from holiday family drama, so here we go. Enjoy! 
> 
> (P.S. Very small trigger warning for talking about suicidal ideation at the end of the chapter)

“Lily, for the hundredth time,” Ginny groaned, throwing a pillow at Lily’s head, “help your brother set the table. Everyone is going to be here in half an hour.”

Lily raised a hand to her head, offended that her mother had just pelted her with a pillow. She had been lying comfortably facedown on the sofa, nursing a blinding headache caused by lack of sleep and the firewhiskey that Stella may or may not have slipped her the previous night.

“And get dressed. It’s 11h30 in the morning,” Ginny added, walking back to the kitchen.

Reluctantly, Lily stood up and walked towards the dining room where Albus was building a pyramid out of wine glasses. He placed the last one on top… and they all came crashing down on the floor. Lily dragged her hands across her face. “I am too fucking hungover for this,” she muttered. “Albus, step back. Let me clean that up.”

***

Lily was still feeling rather grim forty minutes later, but a shower, throwing up twice and a quick restorative potion made her feel at least slightly human as she greeted the horde of Weasleys that descended on Grimmauld Place. The family rotated who was to host Christmas and this year it was the Potters’ turn. Even though the Burrow was larger and far more convenient, Harry and Ginny always insisted on hosting Christmas in their home when it was their turn.

“Lily, you look pale!” her grandmother exclaimed upon seeing her. “Have you been eating enough, dear?”

“Yes, Gran,” she reassured her grandmother.

“Ginevra!” Molly Weasley shouted when she spotted her daughter. “What have you been feeding Lily? She looks dreadful.” Forgetting Lily, Molly chased after Ginny to scold her.

“Why do we look so pale today, I wonder?” James asked, popping up next to Lily.

“Jesus, James! Announce yourself, please.”

“Oof,” James groaned with a pained expression. “You really are starting to swear like a Muggle. A certain someone must really be rubbing off on you.” James said this just a bit too suggestively.

“James,” Lily said, warningly.

James shrugged nonchalantly. “Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me. I’m just glad you two made up.”

First Draco and now James. How the fuck were the two of them the most observant people in her life?

“How’d it go with yours?” she asked.

James pulled a face, but was saved from continuing the conversation by the arrival of the Malfoys. Hermione walked into the sitting room and immediately came over to hug Lily.

“Hermione, I can’t breathe,” Lily gasped.

“Sorry,” Hermione released her. She cupped Lily’s face and looked her in the eyes. “I’m so sorry I didn’t know, but I am so proud of you and I love you. Okay?”

Lily nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

“You alright, Hermione?” Harry asked, concernedly.

Hermione straightened up and quickly dabbed at her eyes.

“I’m fine, Harry, I’m just feeling a bit emotional,” she replied, smiling at Lily. “Our girls are so grown up.”

Harry smiled. “That they are. Can I get anyone drinks?”

And then the moment was over. Stella came to stand by Lily and Draco shot her a knowing smile as he went to help Harry with the drinks.

“Can I quickly talk to you for a sec?” Stella asked, quietly.

“Sure.”

Lily led Stella towards the library down the hall.

“This is not funny,” Stella told her.

Lily grinned. “It’s a little bit funny.” She pulled Stella close, wrapping her arms around her middle. “So, do you really want to talk or…”

“Yes,” Stella asserted, stepping out of Lily’s arms. “I wanted to tell you that my mother is thrilled that we are no longer mortal enemies, but she’s a bit over-excited and might already be planning our wedding. She was quite annoyed when she realised that Dad had figured it out months ago, but she seems mostly over it. And Dad…” Stella pulled out a tiny box from her pocket, “said I could give you this for Christmas.”

“What is it?” Lily asked taking the box and looking inside.

“They’re Black family rings. Some great-great grandparents somewhere had them made and wore them till they died.” Stella took the box and removed one of the jet-black rings. “They’re made from onyx and they’re charmed to fit any finger you put them on.” She picked up Lily’s hand. “Which finger?” she asked. Stella lifted her eyes to meet Lily’s, a question in her silver irises.

“Pinky finger,” Lily answered.

Stella smiled and slipped the ring onto Lily’s finger. At first the ring was far too big, but then it shrunk to fit her finger perfectly. Lily held up her hand, admiring the way the black stone ring caught the light. She took the box from Stella and removed the other ring.

“Which finger?” Lily asked. Stella smiled shyly and held out her hand.

“Pinky finger,” she replied gently. Lily slipped the ring onto Stella’s finger and watched how it shaped itself to fit.

The ring on Lily’s finger buzzed and she jerked her hand in surprise. “What was that?” she asked.

Stella grinned. “I haven’t shown you the best part yet. Look at the ring.”

Stella focused on her own ring. The buzz started again and Lily saw words form above the ring. After a few seconds they settled into, _Hey, Potter_. Lily looked up at Stella. “Did you send that?”

“Uh-huh,” Stella nodded. “Cool, huh?”

“How do you do it?”

“Focus on the ring and form the words that you want to send.”

Lily looked down at her ring and concentrated.

Stella smiled and held up her hand. “Got it,” she said proudly.

“I can’t see the message on your ring,” Lily realised.

“That’s the beauty of it. The wearer of the ring is the only person who can see it.”

Lily smiled, realising what this meant. “So, we can send each other secret messages any time we want to?”

Stella laced their fingers together and held up their joined hands. “Yes.”

“And your dad just gave them to you?”

“No, I asked if I could have them. And he said, yes. He knows how I feel about you.”

Lily wrapped her arms around Stella, pulling her close. “Thank you.”

The ring buzzed and Lily looked down to read, _You’re welcome_.

She smiled, savouring the feeling of Stella in her arms.

***

Christmas dinner was loud and busy, as usual. Before starting to eat, Molly forced everyone to wear their Christmas jumpers. Even Draco was forced to wear a deep, green one emblazoned with a sliver D. If it had been Lily, she would have been tempted to make it red like the Weasley and Potter ones, but luckily her grandmother had more tact. Nevertheless, Albus, Scorpius, Stella and Draco were a tad outnumbered in the sea of red.

Throughout the meal, everyone laughed and talked over one another and when everyone had eaten so much they were fit to burst, they scattered around the house to find a spot where they could nap off all the food that they had consumed.

Stella and Lily found their way to the staircase, where they sat opposite each other, sending messages through their rings. It was a bit like sending text messages, but this time Lily couldn’t run out of credit.

Draco found them like that, still wearing his jumper. “What are you two up to?” he asked taking a seat on the step below them.

“Playing with our rings,” Stella answered, holding up her hand.

Draco smiled. He looked over at the family tree that was sprawled across the wall opposite them. “They belonged to…” he held up a finger, trying to find the names he was looking for, “Leo and Cassandra Black. I think they were alive about two hundred years ago.”

Lily looked up at the map curiously. “Is it strange for you to come to this house? When it used to belong to your family.”

Draco shrugged. “I don’t think the Blacks would approve of my life choices, so your father is about as entitled to this house as I am.”

“Why aren’t Scorpius and I on the family tree?” Stella asked, pointing to her father’s name and picture.

“To be honest, I’ve never really thought about it. Your grandmother doesn’t acknowledge this house anymore since Sirius died. It’s all a bit complicated to be quite honest. This isn’t our house, after all.”

“It’s part of our history, though. Cissa was a Black, that makes us Blacks too. Do you think Sirius wouldn’t want us on there?”

“I cannot answer that,” Draco answered honestly.

“No, you definitely can’t,” Harry said vehemently. He was stood in the doorway, his eyes murderous as he stared at Draco. “You didn’t even know Sirius. How dare you talk about him? In his house.”

“I brought it up, Uncle Harry,” Stella defended her father.

“I’m not talking to you, Stella,” Harry said without looking at her.

“Dad,” Lily exclaimed.

“Harry, Stella was merely asking about her family history. I told her that this house now belongs to you, so this family tree is no longer ours,” Draco tried to pacify him.

“Do you reject the Black family name now that you realise that they would have wanted your wife and children dead?” Harry asked viciously.

“Dad!”

“Uncle Harry!’ Stella and Lily cried in unison.

Draco stood up from the step and drew himself up to his full height. Stella’s father rarely scared Lily, but when he did, he was terrifying. “Harry, I suggest you stop speaking, right now,” Draco said in a deadly calm voice.

“What are you going to do?” Harry goaded him. “Curse me in my own home?”

“Dad, please stop it!” Lily begged. “We were having a civil conversation and you are making it out as if Draco was threatening you.”

“Lily, stay out of this.”

“You stay out of this. We weren’t talking to you.”

“Lily,” Draco warned. “Don’t get involved.”

“Don’t talk to my daughter like that!” Harry yelled.

The pitch of their argument had gradually been getting higher and higher, and now people from around the house were starting to come closer.

“He’s not talking to me in any way that’s wrong. You’re far ruder, Dad,” she said, drawing out the word “dad” bitterly. “Are you upset, because he’s actually willing to talk about the past unlike you.”

“Lily,” Stella whispered. “Don’t.”

Harry looked horrified. “Why do you keep throwing Draco Malfoy in my face, Lily? Have I been such a terrible father that you would prefer a Death Eater over me?”

“Enough!” Hermione screamed. “Draco, Harry, follow me. Stella, Lily, stay where you are.”

No-one moved. Lily stared at her father, not believing how cruel he had just been. Harry looked around at the shocked faces of the family members that had gathered around the landing and slowly his expression of anger morphed into something that resembled remorse. Draco seemed mostly calm, but the clench of his jaw and the fists he held against his sides, showed how he was desperately trying not to lose control.

Finally, Harry walked towards Hermione and the spell holding them all in place seemed to be broken. Draco followed and soon Stella and Lily were alone again on the staircase.

When Stella put a hand to Lily’s cheek, Lily realised that tears were streaming down her face. She buried her face in Stella’s chest and sobbed.

***

Later, Stella and Lily were still sitting on the stairs, Lily in-between Stella’s legs, her back against Stella’s chest. They were lazily playing with each other’s hands, not talking. If anyone found their position strange, they hadn’t said anything yet. Hermione walked onto the landing, her coat and Stella’s in her hands.

“Stella, we’re leaving,” she said, simply.

Stella didn’t move. “Is everything okay?” she asked her mother.

Hermione pursed her lips. “Not completely, but don’t worry about anything. It’s fine. We just need to go home.”

“I don’t want to leave Lily.”

Hermione sighed. “Stella, we can’t stay here. Harry is…”

“Harry’s what?” Lily asked.

“He’s upset, Lily. This has been a stressful day. Your father wants to talk to you and I think that it will go better if Stella isn’t here.”

“I don’t want to talk to him,” Lily said, looking away and burying her face in Stella’s shoulder.

Hermione came over and sat down on the step below the girls.

“I can’t imagine what it must be like for all you kids,” she said, sounding bone-tired. “You have inherited a right mess. We’re all broken people trying to mend ourselves after a war and here we are lashing out at our own children, just because we’re in pain.”

“You don’t lash out like my dad,” Lily pointed out.

“You think I don’t?” Hermione asked rhetorically. “Why do you think I overreacted the way I did after Stella got you drunk? A part of me still expects the worst from a Malfoy, even though my kids are Malfoys.”

Lily could feel Stella stiffen behind her.

“I’m not perfect, Lily. I wake up every day and have to choose again to live the life that I have. I live in the same house as the one that I was tortured in. I raise my kids there. Some days, I think that fact will eat me alive.”

“Why do we live there, then?” Stella asked.

“Because then that would mean she’d won. That hatred won. But you, my darling,” she said, touching Stella’s face gently, “prove to me every day that she didn’t. You and your brother bring such light into that house that the darkness cannot enter it anymore. I’m able to live there, because you drive out the darkness for me.”

Hermione turned to Lily and placed her hand on Lily’s. “Be patient with your father, Lily. He has been through more than all of us.”

Lily was quiet for a while. “Fine. I’ll talk to him.”

Stella shifted out from behind Lily and stood up. “Use the ring, if you need me. I can Floo back immediately.”

Lily nodded. Stella wrapped Lily in a hug and kissed her cheek. She stood up and took her offered coat from her mother.

They waved to Lily as they left the room.

Lily stared at the Black family tree as she waited. She toyed with her ring, at least feeling like a part of Stella had been left behind. Harry stood in the doorway, waiting for her to acknowledge him. When she finally did, she stood up and said, “Let’s talk in the library. I’m sick of this wall.”

Harry followed her wordlessly. In the library, Lily sat down on the couch and pulled a pillow to her chest. She didn’t look at her father.

“Lily, I’m so sorry for how I talked to you,” Harry began.

“Did you apologise to the Malfoys as well?” Lily asked, finally meeting her father’s gaze. He was sitting on a chair across from her, his elbows on his knees.

The question clearly angered him, but he gritted his teeth to stop a biting comment. “Malfoy and I have a lot of history, Lily. History that you will never understand, simply because you weren’t there. I can freely admit that he is a good husband and good father, but that does not absolve him of the things he and his family did.”

“Do you expect me to hold that against him?” Lily asked. “Do you want to perpetuate the cycle of hatred with your children?”

Harry sighed. “No. I don’t.” He rubbed his eyes. “I’m not setting a very good example, am I?”

“Usually you do,” Lily answered truthfully, “but sometimes you’re a right tosser.”

Harry bristled at Lily’s language. “For the record,” Lily continued, “I don’t wish Draco were my father. I just wish you would sometimes be a bit more forthcoming about the past. And a bit more understanding with us. Stella was only asking about Sirius, because her entire life is about navigating who hates her because of her father, who hates her because of her mother and who tolerates her simply to please one of her parents. She probably looks at that wall and thinks she’s not on it, because her mother is Muggleborn and half her ancestors would think she was an abomination. That’s a fucking hard pill to swallow at the age of seventeen.”

Harry listened intently to Lily as she spoke. “Does Stella think we only tolerate her because of Hermione?”

Lily shrugged. “You called her father a Death Eater pretty easily, so how is she supposed to know any different?”

“I love Stella and Scorpius as though they were my own children. I think of how Hermione- and it pains me to say this- how Draco as well, have raised them, and it gives me faith that love truly is the most powerful force in the world. My mother…” he pauses, “she loved me so much that Voldemort couldn’t kill me.”

Lily swallowed past a lump in her throat. Her father looked so young in that moment, describing a mother he had barely known.

He smiled ruefully. “I was scared to have children, you know. I’d been raised by my aunt and uncle and they didn’t have a shred of affection for me. I learnt about love from the Weasleys. And Sirius. I was always afraid that I wouldn’t know how to love my children enough. When I heard you talking about Sirius… the grief just overwhelmed me. Sometimes, I can’t be the father I should be, because the pain is just too much.”

Without even consciously deciding to, Lily climbed off the couch and wrapped her arms around her father. “You love us enough, Daddy. We never doubt your love for us.”

Harry’s chest heaved and Lily realised her father must be crying. They stayed like that for a while, not talking, but just holding each other.

***

“How’s your dad?” Lily asked Stella, after she described her conversation with Harry in the library.

Stella sighed through the phone. “I don’t know. He locked himself in his greenhouse and I haven’t seen him since. I don’t know if he went to his room.”

“Did your mom say what happened between the three of them?”

“Not really. She just said that she reminded them that they need to put us first in all this. They can’t allow the past to still hurt their children.”

“It does hurt us, though,” Lily said, thinking of her father crying in her arms. “If your parent is in pain, you feel it.”

“I know,” Stella sighed, again. “Scorpius cried all the way home. He hadn’t heard the argument, but he could feel the atmosphere wasn’t right. He loves Dad more than he lets on.”

“I’m sorry about everything that happened, Stella. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Stella replied, the tears audible in her voice.

“It’s not yours either. My dad told me he loves you and Scorpius like his own kids.”

“Funny,” Stella said, bitterly, “he could talk about us being killed rather flippantly.”

“I know,” Lily sighed. “Can we talk again tomorrow? I feel like I’m going to pass out.”

“Me too. I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Lily hung up the phone. As she lay down on the pillow and closed her eyes, she felt her ring buzz. The letters swirled in the darkness, until they formed the word, “Goodnight.” She buzzed back the same word. Lily fell asleep immediately, feeling as though Stella were there with her.

***

The rest of the Christmas holidays passed without incident, but there was a definite thread of tension that lingered in the house. Lily kept to herself for the most part and only really interacted with her family over meals. Normally, she would come up with an excuse to see Stella, but they both seemed to be in unspoken agreement that it would be a bad idea.

As they left Grimmauld Place for King’s Cross, Lily breathed a sigh of relief. At the station, she hugged her parents goodbye almost immediately, not wanting to stand around awkwardly. She climbed onboard and waited for Stella to arrive. Their rings appeared to be infinitely useful for everything from knowing when Stella was awake in the morning to knowing if she’d boarded the train yet.

Lily was starting to doze off by the time a hand slipped into hers. “Could you have ditched your parents any faster?” Stella asked, jokingly, still wrapped in her coat and scarf.

Lily sighed. “I just feel really awkward around them at the moment. I’m still not sure how to act.”

Stella squeezed her hand. “It will get better. Mum says she’s going to work on Harry while we’re at school. She wants to get him to open up. Dad is going to stay away from family stuff for a while. Except for helping your nan with her garden. He was rather serious about that.”

Lily smiled. “Your dad really doesn’t look like the gardening type, and yet.”

Stella played with her stockings. “I don’t know if he’d want me to tell you this, but maybe he would.” She took a steadying breath. “It was how he dealt with the after-effects of the war. He’d wanted to kill himself, after everything that happened. In order to give him something to do, his mum forced him to tend to the roses. Each time he thought about how he would kill himself, he wondered about what would happen to them, if he was no longer there. Then a couple of years later he met Mum again and the suicidal ideation stopped. He goes through dips, but he’s much better.”

“Is that why your middle name is Rose?” Lily asked.

Stella looked up and smiled. “He says roses saved his life.”

Lily wrapped her arms around Stella, burying her face in Stella’s hair. “Thank God for roses.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcome. You can find me on [tumblr](https://richardayoadeshair.tumblr.com/)


	12. Harsh Truths

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I'm so sorry for not updating in ages. I was busy editing my Master's film and then I went on holiday and I thought I would be able to update, but alas, I didn't have the time.
> 
> I've decided to combine some chapters, so this fic will be a bit shorter than originally planned. 
> 
> Finally, I didn't add this trigger warning to the story, because it's spoilery, but it's unavoidable now. Certain characters are outed in a very public way in this chapter, so proceed with caution if that's triggering for you.

As it is wont to do, life went back to normal. Lily and Stella went back to focusing on classes, studying and spending time catching up with their friends. Their life at Hogwarts felt simple and manageable, far removed from the questions about war and pain and hate that seemed to be plaguing their home lives.

Lily was just beginning to allow herself to breathe a sigh of relief when the security she felt at Hogwarts turned out to be just as fragile as the one she had at home. One Monday morning, a few weeks into January, Lily walked into the Great Hall, to find what seemed like the entire school’s eyes turned to stare at her. It was strange, but not really uncommon. As the daughter of “the Chosen One”, Lily had been gawked at for no reason other than that, more times than she could count.

Once at the Gryffindor table, she took her usual seat and shot a glance at the Slytherin table to see if Stella was there yet.

“Is it true?” her cousin Fred asked, leaning over a first year to talk to her.

“Is what true?” She barely looked up, focused on piling food onto her plate.

Fred handed her a Daily Prophet. Lily froze.

On the front page, covering almost the entire sheet of paper, was a photo of Stella and Lily kissing each other after a Quidditch match. They were both still in their uniforms and they were standing near the equipment shed. The kiss had happened months ago, after Slytherin had beaten Gryffindor. In big block letters, the headline, “Girls, girls, girls!” dominated the top of the page, with a description reading, “The female Potter and Malfoy heirs seem to be far more than friends.”

Lily couldn’t breathe. Her vision started swimming and the words blurred on the page. Who the fuck had done this? Turning the page, she realised the article continued with even more pictures of them, taken over the past few months.

She felt sick. Someone had been following them, taking pictures of their private moments, just waiting to publicly out them. She looked at the byline again and saw that it was written by Rita Skeeter. _That geriatric bitch!_ Lily screamed internally.

There was a shift in the atmosphere of the Great Hall and Lily looked up from the paper to see Stella walking into the hall, laughing with Poppy. Lily wanted to warn her, but she seemed frozen in her seat. All she could do was stare in horror as Stella walked past someone reading the paper and stop in her tracks. Stella’s eyes scanned the hall and immediately found Lily. She wasn’t sure what Stella saw in her expression, but within seconds she had grabbed the paper in front of her and cast a wordless spell to set it on fire. With a last glare around the hall, she fled.

Seeing Stella run away, finally shook Lily out of her stupor. She threw the paper at Fred’s face and ran out the hall. With her ring, she buzzed Stella to ask where she was, but there was no response. Luckily, she found Stella in a hallway on the way back to the Slytherin common room. Stella leaned a hand against the wall and as Lily drew closer, she realised that Stella was hyperventilating. “Stella, it’s okay,” Lily said gently, putting her hand on Stella’s back.

“I can’t. I can’t brea…” Stella struggled.

“Shh,” Lily soothed, rubbing Stella’s back. “Just breathe in and out. Follow me.” Lily took deliberate breaths and Stella tried to copy her rhythm. After a few minutes, her breathing was still fast, but it was less chaotic.

“My grandparents,” Stella whispered.

“I know,” Lily said, pulling her closer. “I know.”

Stella was still crying when Professor Hathaway found them.

“Headmistress McGonagall wishes to speak with you both,” Professor Hathaway told them.

“Fuck,” Lily muttered under her breath. Keeping her arm draped across Stella’s shoulder, they followed Professor Hathaway towards the headmistress’ office. Lily wasn’t sure how she was managing to stay calm, but seeing Stella’s reaction forced her to keep her emotions under control so that she could help her.

As they made their way up the winding staircase to McGonagall’s office, they could hear an angry male voice echo across the stones.

“This is completely unacceptable. You should be protecting your students. How can you allow an article like this to be published, placing your students in harm’s way?”

Stella recognised it as her father’s voice and pulled Lily up the stairs as she ran.

Inside the office, McGonagall was sitting behind her desk as Draco leaned over it, looking like a panther ready to strike. Or maybe rather a snake.

“Daddy,” Stella cried as soon as they were through the door.

Draco forgot about his verbal assault of McGonagall and turned to run to his daughter. He placed a hand behind her head and hugged her close to him. His other arm, he wrapped around Lily to bring her into the embrace as well. “Are you girls alright?” he asked, a deep crease visible between his brows.

Stella nodded and Lily shrugged. She cast a wary glance across to her parents, who she now realised were standing on the far side of the room. They were watching the exchange silently.

Draco released them from his grip. “Your mother’s on her way,” he said to Stella. “I came as soon as I could.” Giving her another once over to check that she was not in any immediate distress, Draco turned back to McGonagall.

“Now, what are you going to do about all of this? You allowed this vicious journalist onto school grounds and placed our daughters in harm’s way. In the Muggle world, this would be considered a hate crime.”

“Mr. Malfoy, unfortunately I cannot ban every journalist from attending Quidditch matches,” McGonagall answered, holding up her hands in a helpless gesture. “Sport at Hogwarts is an important part of the entire Wizarding community and there would be an uproar if we started regulating who was able to attend.”

Draco scoffed. “Merlin forbid there is an uproar about a sport, but let’s allow our children’s private lives to be smeared across the front of the largest newspaper in the country.”

“Malfoy, calm down,” Harry chimed in, finally. “This is not the school’s fault.”

“Like hell it isn’t,” Draco roared. "You should know better than anyone what that woman is capable of."

"I do, but she is to blame, not the school."

All the arguing was giving Lily a headache and she collapsed onto the sofa, pulling Stella down with her. Stella leaned her head on Lily’s shoulder and they watched their parents argue.

“Stella,” Hermione called, appearing through the door. “Oh, thank God.” She sat down on the sofa and ran her hands protectively over Stella. “I am so sorry, girls. It never should have happened like this.”

“Does Cissa know?” Stella whispered.

“Never mind your grandmother, Stella. I told you she will love you no matter what.” Hermione tucked Stella’s hair behind her ears.

“Hermione, did you know?” Ginny asked, walking towards the sofa.

“Yes, Ginny…” Hermione started.

“Lily, you told Hermione about this and not us?” Ginny interrupted, turning from Hermione to Lily.

“I told my parents,” Stella answered for her. “It had nothing to do with Lily.”

“Ginny, don’t be angry with the girls,” Draco added. “This is about protecting them.”

“Draco, can you not tell me how to parent my child, thank you very much.” Ginny was talking to Draco, but her eyes stayed glued to Lily's.

“I am merely saying that we need to decide what we are going to do about this," Draco continued, lost in his tirade. "Are we going to bring charges up against this journalist and are we going to challenge the school as well?”

“Draco, that is a bit extreme,” Hermione said.

“Can all of you just be quiet!” Lily yelled. Her head was throbbing. “Why don’t you just ask us what we want, instead of shouting at one another.”

“I second that,” Stella added, wiping the tears off her face.

Draco seemed chastened and Lily’s parents came over to kneel in front of the couch.

“Tell us what you want, Lily,” Harry said gently.

Lily squeezed Stella’s hand. She wanted this to have never happened in the first place, but beyond that she wasn’t sure yet.

“Dad?” Stella said, before Lily was able to make sense of her feelings. “I want you to get them to print an apology. They must say that they were wrong to publish the article and the photos and that they will never do this to anyone else again.”

“I’ll have it done before the end of the day,” Draco assured her, his voice carrying the promise of violence.

“I want the school to change their policies,” Lily heard herself saying. Everyone turned to look at her. “Being gay isn’t even something that’s treated as a possibility at this school and that needs to change. Maybe if this school actually provided us with skills beyond spells, we might have been able to come out before some psycho journalist outed us to the entire country.”

“Miss Potter, I assure you this is an unprecedented situation,” McGonagall argued.

“Oh, please. You think we’re the first gay students to attend this school? We’re lucky to have had each other to figure all of this out, but I am sure there have been hundreds of kids that felt like freaks at this school, because they didn’t understand what they were.”

“She’s right, Professor,” Hermione said. “As much as it is the parents’ job to educate their children about these things, they spend most of the year here under your supervision.”

McGonagall sighed. “I suppose you are right. Miss Potter, Miss Malfoy, we shall discuss this more at another time. About the more urgent matter at hand, what would you like to do now? If you would like to go home for a few days, I will allow that.”

“We can’t leave now,” Stella cried. “That would make it seem like we did something wrong. No, we’ll go back to class. But, Lily’s right.” She glared defiantly at McGonagall. “We’ve been fed to the wolves and you better make certain that doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

She stood up. “If that’s everything you want from us, I’d like to leave now and look for my brother. Lily?” She offered Lily a hand.

Lily took it and stood up. “Yes. We have to go face those wolves now.”

“Lily,” Harry said. “Can we talk about this?”

Lily shook her head. “Not today." Even though she had managed to keep it together so far, she wasn’t ready to face all the emotions that would come with talking to her parents quite yet. "Come to Hogsmeade this weekend and we can talk, but I can’t today.”

Ginny took Lily’s hand in hers. “Of course. We’ll see you then.”

Impulsively, Lily hugged her mum close. Despite everything, she was glad they were there.

“Bye, Mum.”

“Goodbye, Lily.”

***

Once downstairs again, Lily took a deep breath of fresh air. Stella stood next to her, her arms folded over her chest. “Are you okay?” Lily asked.

“I’m better. Just worried about Scorpius.”

“Scorpius is fine,” Albus said, materialising from behind a statue across from them. “I owe him thirty chocolate frogs now.”

Scorpius stepped out from behind another statue, grinning widely. “I told Albus that you two had something going on after I caught you snogging behind the hedges in the summer. So, he just lost the bet.”

“You bet on us?” Lily asked, trying to decide if she was more mortified by the fact that Scorpius had caught them kissing or that their brothers were making bets about their relationship.

Albus had the decency to look a bit sheepish about it. “It was just a bit of fun. We didn’t mean anything bad by it. I just bet against Scorpius to annoy him. I don’t actually mind if you two are together. Frankly, I prefer it when you two aren’t actively at war.”

Stella smiled. “That’s sort of sweet in a mildly creepy way. So, you two are okay after the article?”

Scorpius shrugged. “We can take it. People are always making fun of us. Are you two alright?”

Stella nuzzled his hair. “We’re aces, kid. Now, we are probably all very late for class, so shall we?”

Stella put her arm around her brother and led them down the hallway.

***

Despite the awful way in which it had started, it turned out to be one of those perfect January days, where the sky was a deep blue and the sun shone brightly on the white, blanket of snow. It wasn’t exactly warm, but it wasn’t cold either. After classes, Lily and Stella wandered outside to make the most of the good weather. They perched on the low wall that enclosed one of the courtyards and enjoyed the slight warmth that the early afternoon sun provided.

“Do you think we should give them a show, considering they’re staring at us anyway?” Stella asked, glaring at the people who stopped to stare at them and snigger with their friends.

“Leave them be. They’ll get tired of us in a day or two,” Lily placated her. She closed her eyes again and leaned back her head, trying to ignore the prickle up her neck caused by all the stares.

“Okay, that Hufflepuff better stop staring or I will live up to my family name and hex him,” Stella growled.

Lily lowered her head to find the poor boy who was at the receiving end of Stella’s ire. The Hufflepuff in question was an inoffensive-looking third year, who kept stealing glances at them while pretending to be reading a book. A book that he was holding upside down.

“Stella, I feel like we’ve had a bit of a role-reversal today. You’re supposed to be the calm one and I’m the angry one who wants to kick everything and everyone.”

Stella’s eyes turned to slits and she glared at Lily out of the corner of her eyes. “It’s been a stressful day, Potter.”

Lily smiled.

“Why are you so calm?” Stella asked, tilting her head to study Lily.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. At first, I wanted to stay calm because you were freaking out and I wanted to support you, but now, I don’t know. It feels kind of freeing not having to pretend anymore.” It was surprising, but Lily felt lighter now that everyone knew. She still wanted to throttle that nitwit Rita Skeeter and she felt violated in a way that made her feel like an exposed nerve, but on the other hand, everyone had found out the truth about her and she hadn’t spontaneously combusted. Somehow, that made her feel invincible.

Stella’s expression softened and she moved her hand until their fingers were touching on the brick wall. “That is a definite positive.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Lily could see the Hufflepuff was still staring at them. “Do you think he has a lesbian fetish or something? He is really staring at us.”

Stella turned her head to look at him again. “You, Hufflepuff,” she called. Lily touched her arm to stop her, but Stella just shook her off. “Come here.”

The kid looked absolutely terrified, but he came over to them, clutching his book against his chest.

“Why are you staring at us?” Stella asked, sounding the most Slytherin Lily had ever heard her.

The poor Hufflepuff opened and closed his mouth, absolutely terrified of Stella.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Lily tried to make up for her girlfriend. “We were just feeling a bit uncomfortable.”

The boy looked at Lily and she could see he was relaxing a little bit.

“I just want to, umm” he squeaked. “I didn’t know there were other gay kids here,” he finished in a rush.

Stella paled visibly. “I am so sorry,” she apologised immediately. “I thought you were judging us, I’m really sorry.”

“I shouldn’t have been staring, it’s just, nobody here ever talks about this stuff, so when I saw the paper, I felt a bit less alone.”

Lily felt her heart warm at the sweet confession. “I’m Lily,” she said. “I mean, I know you know that. Sorry. Umm, what’s your name?”

The boy smiled, revealing adorable dimples. “I’m Jack.”

“Nice to meet you, Jack. I’m Stella.” Stella held out her hand and he shook it shyly.

“Have you talked to anyone about this, Jack?” Lily asked.

He shook his head. “I’ve only recently admitted it to myself. Please don’t say anything.”

“Of course not,” Stella reassured him. “We’re actually pretty good at keeping secrets, creepy journalists who take pictures of us notwithstanding.”

Jack laughed. “I’m really sorry about that. I would have hated for it to be me.”

“Hopefully it won’t happen to you. My dad’s ready to burn the Daily Prophet to the ground.”

“Cool,” Jack replied, impressed.

“That’s not very Hufflepuff of you,” Lily quipped.

Jack shrugged. “What they did to you was wrong. They deserve the wrath of Draco Malfoy.”

Stella and Lily laughed. As they talked to Jack, Lily realised how wonderful it could be to talk to other people going through the same experiences as them. Even though the way they were outed was deeply wrong, maybe some good could come from it.

***

In the days following the Daily Prophet article, Lily and Stella’s life at Hogwarts took some very interesting turns. Following Jack, a few other students came up to them to tell them they weren’t alone. In the span of a few days, they had seemed to assemble a new group of friends from different years and all the houses. Jack would now openly greet them in the hallways and had even come to sit next to them in the library a few times.

Luckily, the friends they had from before were also accepting for the most part. When Stella and Lily approached Poppy after dinner on Monday night, she looked Lily up and down and asked Stella, “Does she have to be on the opposing Quidditch team?”

Stella beamed and said, “Yes, that’s half the fun.”

Poppy sighed long-sufferingly and said, “Mazel-tov then, I suppose.” With a wagging finger she added, “But that doesn’t mean you can take it easy on her.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Stella told her. Lily felt tempted to bring up James, but thought better of it.

All in all, the whole week went by without anymore hitches and Lily and Stella could make the most of all the benefits being out entailed. They held hands as they walked to class and had already been disciplined three times for kissing in the hallways. By Saturday morning, however, Lily’s anxiety was spiking again, as she was supposed to meet her parents that afternoon.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Stella asked as they walked to the meeting point for the students going to Hogsmeade.

Lily shook her head. “I really need to talk to them by myself.”

“Okay,” Stella squeezed her hand. “You can always message me with your ring if you need to.”

Professor Hobbes arrived then and the students started making their way to Hogsmeade.

The closer they came to the village, the more nervous Lily felt. She was supposed to meet her parents at The Three Broomsticks, but she hoped they weren’t planning on staying there. Lily didn’t really feel like discussing her lack of coming out to her parents in front of half of Hogwarts.

When they reached their destination, Stella studied Lily’s expression.

“You sure?” she asked again.

Lily nodded and tried to smile reassuringly. Giving Lily a kiss on her cheek, Stella turned to follow the rest of the students down the main street. Lily took a steadying breath and headed to The Three Broomsticks.

Her parents were standing at the entrance, her mother wrapped in a red and gold scarf that Molly had knitted for her a few Christmases ago. Harry stood rubbing his hands together, his long hair tied back high on his head. Lily walked up to them slowly and quietly, as though trying not to scare them off with any sudden movements or noises. When Ginny saw her, she wrapped Lily in a deep hug. They didn’t say anything, but Lily could feel Ginny’s breathing hitch, as though she were trying not to cry. Finally, Ginny let her go and Harry smiled at her. “Hey, Lil’” he said.

“Hey, Dad.”

“Do you want to go for a walk?” Harry asked, motioning down the lane.

“Sure.” Lily was happy that they weren’t going to enter the crowded pub.

Ginny slipped her arm through Lily’s and they walked close together, following Harry. It was peaceful to walk down the snow-covered village with her parents, in surprisingly unawkward silence. Harry stopped in front of a fence that overlooked an empty field. In the distance was the Shrieking Shack, where Harry had famously been reunited with his godfather, Sirius Black.

Harry didn’t turn around as he began to speak, but simply kept looking out over the white expanse. “I met Sirius properly in that shack. He was hiding there after escaping Azkaban.”

Lily knew the story, but she had never heard her father tell it.

“I had no family then,” he continued. “It was like discovering a limb that had always been there, but I’d just never noticed. Sirius loved me unconditionally, just as he had loved my parents. It was the greatest gift I had received in my life, all that love, before I became a father of course. When he died,” Harry choked down the emotion in his voice, “I felt like I had lost everything. I don’t like talking about the war, because I don’t want to break down in front of any of you. I didn’t want you to grow up scared of all the monsters in the world. My childhood was destroyed the day Voldemort killed my parents and I was determined that you would have everything that I had been deprived of.”

Ginny squeezed Lily’s arm and she realised that the tears were now flowing freely down her mother’s face. Harry finally turned around to face them. “I realise now what you’ve been trying to tell me since last summer. At first I was so angry that you hadn’t told us. I felt like we had done something wrong as your parents. Did you think we would hate you or reject you? We would never do that. But then I realised.” Harry looked down and toyed with his wedding ring. “How can you trust us enough with who you are when I don’t trust you enough to talk about myself?”

Harry stepped forward and put his hands against Lily’s cheeks. “I am so sorry, Lily. I wish I could have been a better father to you, but I am going to try everything in my power to make it up to you now. Anything you want to know, you can ask.”

“Do you still love me?” Lily asked in a small voice.

“Of course, we do, love,” Ginny whispered, putting her arms around Lily’s shoulders.

“We have loved you since the day we knew you were inside of your mother,” Harry said, his eyes boring into Lily’s as he held her face in his hands. “And we will continue to love you long after our bodies have turned to dust. Never, ever doubt our love.”

Lily nodded, her cheeks freezing in the cold air as fat, wet tears rolled down them. “I love you, too,” she whispered. Harry put his arms around her shoulders and drew her close, the three of them hugging each other. For the first time in a long while, Lily could just be with her parents, with no weight on her chest.

***

The following Monday morning, Lily and Stella met with Headmistress McGonagall to discuss how they would like the school to deal with the news from the Daily Prophet. Draco Malfoy had lived up to the more unsavoury parts of his reputation and had threatened the newspaper to the point where the following day, their entire front page was dedicated to apologising for their deeply misguided article.

Draco was not the only person to have placed pressure on them. The same day as the apology ran, Poppy handed Stella a letter over breakfast. “For you,” she told her. The letter was from Pansy Parkinson, assuring Stella that the Daily Prophet was not going to get away with their treatment of them. She had already told the paper that she was going to pull all of the advertising that her fashion house ran, as well as from their associated publications. To ensure the point comes across, she was also in the process of convincing some of her highly-connected friends to join her in her boycott. Stella told Poppy it was not really necessary. Nevertheless, the next day she received a letter directly from the Daily Prophet, telling her that they were going to make a sizable donation to the school to assist directly with the implementation of programmes and resources to aid people of Stella’s inclinations.

“Are they homophobically telling me they’re giving me money?” Stella asked Lily when she showed her the letter. Lily read it skeptically.

“I mean, I definitely don’t think ‘inclination’ was the best euphemism they could have picked, but I say you take their money. We can do something good with it.”

It was decided then. Stella approached McGonagall to tell her that they would like to present some ideas to her and with the funds from the Daily Prophet, she was hardly in a position to deny them anything.

Lily and Stella wanted to begin slowly, copying programmes that they had read about in the Muggle world. They wanted to establish a club, a safe space that students could join and attend meetings without any other students knowing. Everyone in attendance would have to sign a code of silence or face a nasty little curse. No other students were going to be outed on their watch.

They also wanted LGBT+ reading materials to be supplied in the library, as well as mandatory sex education for all students, no matter their orientations. No-one actually spoke to the students about sex and in Lily’s opinion, if the contraceptive spell hadn’t been so easy to learn, half of Hogwarts would already be pregnant. Lily didn’t want to know the number of undiagnosed STDs that were probably spreading around the entire school.

They also told McGonagall that she should approach some students of colour in order to implement similar programmes for them. As lacking as the school was in dealing with queer identities, they paid even less attention to the racial discrimination that existed in the Wizarding world. Racism was certainly not limited to questions of blood purity and it was past time to address those issues.

It wasn’t much, but at least it was a start. Lily hoped that the younger kids, like Jack, would carry on the work they started and make it easier for each subsequent generation. For the first time in her life, Lily felt like she was actually leaving a mark on the Wizarding World, no matter how small. It made her feel closer to her parents, as though she were finally living up to their legacy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcome. You can find me on [tumblr](https://richardayoadeshair.tumblr.com/)


	13. Operation Golden Snitch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Here's the last chapter before the epilogue. Lily and Stella's story is mostly wrapped up, so this is just a quick chapter filled with shenanigans. Enjoy!

The school year continued unimpeded and Lily was taken aback each time she realised how close she was coming to the end of her second-last year at Hogwarts. Time had always felt like it was passing by so slowly, but now she felt as though it had all rushed by in a blur. At times, she could not help but feel a peremptory twinge of pain at her impending loss.

Mostly, though, she was deliriously happy. Which led her to some interesting life choices.

“What do you think we should do about Poppy?” Lily asked Stella one day, as they sat studying in a window seat in the library. Ever since they were outed, James had been writing Lily more often than usual, checking up on her. After a few letters reassuring him that they were really fine, his replies became less focused on her and Stella and more of an excuse for him to casually ask how Poppy was doing. Lily readily supplied him with updates, but she also regularly reminded him that Poppy was capable of receiving owls.

Stella looked up from the Potions manual that was spread out on her lap. Her eyebrows were raised questioningly. “Do about what?” she asked.

“Poppy and James.”

“You want to get involved in Poppy’s love life?” Stella asked incredulously.

“Why not?”

“Have you met Poppy Longbottom? She will pull out your liver through your nose if you interfere with her business.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “That’s not true.”

Stella’s eyes shot up even further.

“But shouldn’t we help her?” Lily implored.

“You don’t even know if she wants to be with James. Maybe she likes having a no-strings attached relationship. And she’s been avoiding him since the summer, so she clearly isn’t interested.”

“You don’t know that. Harry says their pride is getting in the way.”

“I’m not getting involved,” Stella sing-songed.

Lily chewed her bottom lip. “How about you just send out feelers to Poppy. See how she feels about James.”

Stella pointed her quill at Lily. “No.”

“Please,” Lily begged.

“Why do you care so much?”

Lily shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I’m becoming a romantic. I want everyone around me to be happy. Plus,” she paused a moment, “James kind of gave me good advice in December and I’d like to pay him back somehow. He’s really miserable.”

“Fine,” Stella relented. “I will drop hints, but if she suspects anything, I’m backing off.”

***

“Operation Golden Snitch”, as Lily had dubbed it, was in full swing. On Sunday evening, Stella had had a very successful pamper party with Poppy. Over manicures and facials, Poppy told Stella that she was distinctly disinterested in any of the boys at Hogwarts and was looking for a, “man who has big enough balls to actually not be intimidated by me.”

“Did she mention James?” Lily whispered to Stella in Defense Against the Darks Arts.

“Not at all,” Stella whispered back. “But she did start reminiscing about last year’s Quidditch final after I brought up the topic of boys. I don’t think it’s too far of a stretch to say that the topic made her think of a certain someone.”

“Miss Malfoy, Miss Potter, is my class getting in the way of your conversation?” Professor Hathaway asked from the front of the classroom.

“Not at all, Professor,” Stella replied smoothly. “Lily was having trouble understanding the spell so I was just explaining it to her.”

Professor Hathaway didn’t look very impressed, but he continued with his lecture.

Lily mouthed, “I am going to kill you” at Stella, who merely smiled.

That evening, instead of studying, they brainstormed ideas about how to help Poppy and James get together. Before going to bed, Lily sent an owl to James that said simply, “I will get you in the same room as her, but after that it’s up to you. Don’t screw it up, James.”

***

Two weeks later, Lily grinned at Stella as they followed Poppy inside The Three Broomsticks, the other witch blissfully unaware of what awaited her. Once inside, a loud voice boomed across the room, calling their names. “Over here,” James called. “I already bought you Butterbeers.”

Poppy stopped in her tracks and narrowed her eyes at the table where James was sitting next to her brother, Harry. Stella put an arm around her and pulled her towards them. “Oh, look, your brothers are here,” she said in typical unfazed Stella fashion. “How lovely.”

At the table, Stella and Lily very deliberately sat down next to Harry, forcing Poppy to sit next to James. Before, Lily would have just thought Poppy was acting like her typical, acerbic self, but now she noticed how Poppy steadily refused to turn her head in James’ direction and seemed to be digging her black lacquered fingernails into her crossed arms rather aggressively.

Harry was making polite conversation, asking them about school, when Poppy stood up and said, “Girls, we’re going to the bathroom.” Her tone of voice left no room for argument and Stella and Lily followed her wordlessly. Once the bathroom door was shut behind them, she spun around and glared at them.

“What are you two playing at?”

Lily shot Stella a worried glance.

“What are you talking about, Poppy?” Stella asked innocently.

Poppy shot her a withering look. “Don’t act dumb, Malfoy. It’s not a good look on you.”

Stella pouted, mildly offended.

“Well?” Poppy demanded, tapping one of her boots impatiently on the tile floor.

“We’re just having a drink with your brother and mine, Poppy,” Lily attempted to sound casual.

This time, it was Lily’s turn to be at the receiving end of Poppy’s withering glare.

“You two probably think you’re being very clever, but I have no need for you interfering in my private life. I can’t believe James told you.”

“Actually, Harry did,” Lily said, sheepishly.

Poppy took a deep, steadying breath. “I’m going to kill him.”

“Poppy,” Stella pleaded, “he cares about you. We all do. We want you to be happy.”

“I am perfectly happy, thank you” Poppy replied caustically.

“Are you sure?” Lily countered. “Because if you really want nothing to do with James, I’ll tell him and he’ll leave you alone.”

Poppy lowered her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest. “Would he do that? Leave me alone?”

Lily shrugged. “My brother’s many things, but he’s not actually a complete arse.”

“That may be true,” Stella added, “but I’ve known you my whole life and I suspect if you really wanted him out of your life, you would have already cut him out of it so completely that he probably would have forgotten your name.”

Surprisingly, Poppy’s eyes filled with tears. “It’s too late. It’s been too late for a while. I ruined it.”

Taking her life in her hands, Lily reached out to touch Poppy’s arm. “It’s not. Life works out somehow, even when you think it won’t. Look at me and Stella. I was terrified of coming out and then a stupid journalist outed me to the whole country and even though it was a nightmare, I got through it so much better than I ever thought I would.”

“What if he doesn’t still want me the way I want him?” Poppy whispered.

“Then fuck him,” Lily said.

“Not in the sexual way,” Stella clarified.

“It’s going to be fine,” Lily continued. "I promise he still cares. A lot."

Poppy smiled sarcastically, her eyes still wet. Taking a deep steadying breath, she closed her eyes and shook her hair. When she opened them, she was her cool, unaffected self again. “Malfoy,” she turned her eyes to Stella. “You still got that flask in your bag?”

Stella grinned. “Always.” She slipped a metal flask out of her purse and handed it to Poppy. Not for the first time was Lily surprised by her girlfriend’s ability to produce alcohol seemingly out of thin air at any occasion. In one gulp, Poppy swigged the contents.

“Right then. Let’s go catch a Potter.”

***

“I am never going to be able to unsee this,” Harry complained, two fingers at his temple as though his head pained him. “This is actually going to give me nightmares.”

Stella, Lily and Harry were standing outside The Three Broomsticks, in the freezing cold, watching James Potter snog the living daylights out of Poppy Longbottom.

“At least they talked it out,” Stella attempted to cheer him up.

“I don’t think they did much talking,” Lily observed, skeptically.

Upon leaving the bathroom, Poppy had dragged James away from the table and towards the exit. After an hour, they felt it prudent to go check on them, just to make sure Poppy hadn’t murdered him. Instead, they found them pushed up against the wall of the pub, seemingly competing to see who could inhale the other one first.

“How do they not have hypothermia yet?” Harry wondered. “It’s bloody freezing.”

“Oi,” Stella called to them. “It’s going to be curfew soon, so if you don’t want Slytherin to be docked points you need to come now, Poppy!”

Poppy’s head materialised over James’ shoulder. “Give me a minute,” she yelled back.

“James,” Harry shouted. “Stop snogging my little sister or I’m changing the wards and locking you out of the flat tonight.”

After a last few kisses, James disentangled himself from Poppy and she sprinted over to the girls. “Alright, let’s go,” she said, acting as though her hair did not resemble a bird’s nest.

Stella and Lily waved at Harry as they started their walk back to Hogsmeade.

“I love you, Poppy Longbottom!” James yelled after them.

“Shut up, Potter!” Poppy yelled back, but her lips were smiling.

“So,” Lily started, but Poppy held up a hand, warning her to not finish that sentence.

Stella grinned at Lily and squeezed her hand. The three girls walked back to school in the softly, falling snow, the cold night air feeling perfectly magical.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcome. You can find me on [tumblr](https://richardayoadeshair.tumblr.com/)
> 
> If anyone's interested, I've written about 95% of a Poppy/James one-shot that I should be posting soon, so keep an eye out.


	14. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I'm so sorry for the lateness of this chapter. I had to move, finish my Master's and get a job, so I unfortunately didn't have much time for posting. I hope you enjoy the end to the story. Thanks for coming on this ride with me!

The following summer:

“But, Dad,” Lily whined. “Stella always stays in my room.”

Harry studied Lily from across the top of the Daily Prophet that he was reading. “I’m sorry. Did I accidentally drink a memory-erasing potion without noticing? Just last summer you were begging for her to stay somewhere else.”

“Dad, you’re being deliberately obtuse,” Lily groused.

Harry sighed. “Lily, Poppy’s not allowed to stay in James’s room, so we can’t suddenly allow your girlfriend to stay in yours.”

“Why not? I can’t get my girlfriend pregnant.”

Harry shot her a withering glare. “Is that the hill you’re going to die on?”

Lily dropped her slice of toast in defeat. “This is so unfair.”

Harry folded up his newspaper, picking up his empty plate and carrying it to the sink. “You should be happy. You’re getting what you always wanted. Your own room.”

He smiled, his green eyes sparkling with mirth. Lily glowered as she watched him leave the kitchen.

She focused on her ring and messaged Stella. _He’s not budging._

_Damn. We’ll just have to be inventive,_ Stella replied.

Lily sighed. For a brief moment, she missed the sneaking around from the previous summer.

***

If somebody had asked Lily what she thought the last summer before her final year at Hogwarts would be like, she would never have guessed it would be anything like this.

Of course, Lily had never imagined that Stella Malfoy would be her girlfriend. Each morning she would rush downstairs in the hopes that Stella would already be awake. Uncle George laughed at Lily every time she showed up at their side of the Burrow where Stella was staying in Roxanne’s room. Stella would then come over to have breakfast with the Potters and Malfoys and the rest of the day, they would spend hiking or just lazing around. There were frequent trips to the Muggle village to the movie theatre where they spent most of their time doing anything but watching a movie. Lily had never given much thought to what being in a relationship would be like, but she was sure that she had never expected to be so happy.

Then, there was Poppy.

Poppy Longbottom coming to stay for weeks on end was not something Lily had ever seen coming. Harry Longbottom had been a fixture around the Burrow since he was in nappies, but Poppy had never spent much time there. Now that she and James were officially together, she had started coming over constantly and had even wheedled an invitation from Molly to stay for the rest of the summer.

This new addition certainly changed the dynamics of life at the Burrow. Poppy and James were an unexpected pair, but Poppy seemed to bring out a seriousness and maturity to James that somehow made his comical, easygoing personality even more likeable, as if these new shades of nuance in his nature enhanced the qualities he already possessed.

Having Stella and Poppy together around the Burrow made things even stranger. They waltzed around like the Slytherin princesses they were, discussing clothes and designers at such lengths that the bulk of Gryffindors present seemed rather lost. Victoire and her siblings kept up, but the other Weasleys were dumbfounded to discover that different shades of blue could merit an hour-long debate.

Even though the Gryffindors were still very much in the majority, Poppy’s imposing presence tended to turn the tables of power at the Burrow. Lily’s poor grandfather looked like he was going to faint during the first family dinner when Stella and Poppy loudly started arguing with James and Lily about which house was better. Stella and Poppy haughtily declared Slytherins to be superior in every way, whilst James and Lily argued that Gryffindors have clearly shown to be the best. The argument became rather heated and they were shouting at volumes not too dissimilar to Howlers.

“I thought they were all dating one another?” Arthur Weasley asked his wife. “Why are they yelling so much?”

Ginny patted her father’s hand. “Apparently my children are attracted only to people that they like disagreeing with.”

“Well, I know where my daughter gets it from,” Hermione said drily, taking a long sip of her wine. “I have only myself to blame.”

Finally, Lily had never expected to talk to her father as much as she did. On Sundays, they would go for long walks or drives and they would talk about everything. Lily had never felt this close to her father. Bit by bit, she was able to assemble the pieces of her his life until she was able to understand the man that was in front of her. Even though she could see that it hurt him, she was grateful each time he opened up. Over time, it seemed to become easier for him and he seemed lighter. Once or twice, she had even spotted her father and Draco having intense conversations. She wondered if they were sharing their trauma with each other as well.

***

“What do you think next summer’s going to be like?” Stella asked, her head propped on Lily’s stomach as they lay in the grass behind the house near the Quidditch pitch, the place where they had kissed for the first time. It was late afternoon, but the late summer air was still thick with heat and they both felt too sluggish to move out from under the shade of the house.

“What do you mean?”

“Just,” Stella began, lifting her head and leaning onto her elbow so that she could look Lily in the eyes. “We’ll have left school and we’ll have to make decisions about who we want to be and what we want to do with our lives. Hogwarts won’t be there waiting for us anymore.”

Lily shrugged, sitting up and crossing her legs. “Do we have to have all of that stuff figured out? After the last year, I’m developing a theory that the unexpected things in life might be the best.”

Stella’s mouth quirked up into a sneaky smile, as her fingers inched up Lily’s bare thigh. “Oh, really, and what made you think like that?”

Lily struggled to suppress the smile that was spreading across her face of its own volition. “Well, I must say, it’s been rather nice seeing my brother so happy. Who knew Poppy Longbottom could be such a good influence on him?”

With a scowl, Stella threw a clump of grass in Lily’s face. Giggling, Lily counterattacked by wrestling Stella to ground and pinning her hands above her head. Their faces were inches apart and Lily slowly, meaningfully, rubbed her nose against Stella’s. “And maybe, you, as well. Just a little bit.”

Stella smiled, her silver eyes flashing. She leaned up and brought her lips to Lily’s, the summer heat and worries about the future forgotten, as they lost themselves in each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcome. You can find me on [tumblr](https://richardayoadeshair.tumblr.com/)
> 
> If anyone's interested in more Poppy and James, I will hopefully be posting my one-shot in the upcoming weeks.


End file.
